(no subject)

[ivyfic]

Peter absorbs peoples' powers, we know that. He's stated that to use them he needs to think about the person, which would indicate that he'd have to know what they were to control them. But, he seems to reflexively absorb and use some of the powers. So. Here's my theory.

The mutants run in families. Linderman has a whole speech abou this being engineered--them running a social Darwinism experiment by pairing up mutants to get more and more powerful mutations. Therefore (as has been hinted if not stated) Ma and Pa Petrelli are mutants. But Peter doesn't know that or know what powers they have.

But, he does have one power we've never seen him absorb: the visions. It's my theory that Ma Petrelli has prophetic dreams, which would explain why she was one of the architects of this whole thing.

I would love it so much if we learned that they had planned out this whole confluence of events except for Peter. Peter's so much younger than Nathan the implication is he's a mistake, and his power is so much more powerful than anyone else's, he's really the only one that could topple everything. So either he's the unforeseen factor, or he's the culmination of everything. (Show implies the second, I'd prefer the first--either way it's fun.)

Also, I want to know what mutant Claude was hiding seven years ago. I'm going to bet now it's Molly Walker (she's about the right age) because he saw the danger of her particular power to all of his kind. And how did the Company know he was hiding a mutant and have no idea who or where? How does that work?

Comments

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm thinking the visions are from Mama Petrelli.

I thought Claude was hiding Claire's biological mother?

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Possible, but that doesn't sit right for me. It seems like Claire's mother set the fire (which she seems to be impervious to) to escape. It doesn't seem like she would have needed help from Claude. Also, given the seven year gap between the two events in the timeline, I expected that the hiding-a-mutant was a recent change of heart, not an ongoing one. If Claude was hiding Claire's mother, that means he stood by while Claire was handed over to Bennet, and been party to any number of other morally gray acts in the intervening seven years. I think TV has a point with the possibility that Claude was hiding Claire, but I still like the Molly Walker hypothesis.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Others have suggested that Mama P is the prophetic dreamer, and, given her tendency to coddle Peter and be around him more, I could see that being the case. However, I would think that such visions would leave one way more depressed and suicidal than she appears to be. Sounds more like Daddy P to me. Then again, he's never been a character--he's more of a boogeyman than Sylar--so it would just be random if she had some other ability. Maybe she doesn't have any herself and was just unlucky enough to fall in love with a guy who did?

I like Peter being a mistake/consequence of trying to direct/control nature (of course I do; I am a scientist). Funny though that, to me, he seems too old to be the planned culmination of Linderman's efforts--after all, why continue the machinations to get Micah if Peter were the One/Mutant Muad'dib/Super Jesus?

I think Claude was hiding Claire. It would have had to have been someone old enough to exhibit an ability (or to possess one that seems as unconsciously controlled as Claire's is) and Molly's doesn't fit the time line. Since she could only have been a baby at the time, and her power requires some ability to recognize people and speak in order to locate them, I think it wasn't her. Would love to have Christopher Eccleston back to explain, though. Any time.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

According to the online graphic novels (which are canon), Pa Petrelli wasn't a mutant, or at least if he was he didn't find that out until MUCH later. Same for Ma.

The prophetic dreams most likely came from Simone's dad. He and Peter were tight, and he appeared in those dreams right before he died.

We have been speculating on Ma, whether she has a power, and if she does I think it's basically a matchmaking thing--she can see which matches will produce Powered children. Or she may be a norm, which would be fine. I prefer not having every major character have powers.

Claude wasn't hiding Claire's mom because he didn't know about her or Claire (and Claire's mom seems to have set off that fire by accident--her powers manifested then and she learned to control them later). I doubt it was Molly, though. It could have been Peter himself, or Nathan. Hard to say.

Oh, and Peter's control has improved immensely--I don't think he has to think about the person anymore. That was just when he was first learning how to use his gift.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

They knew Claire's mom was a firestarter--Claude says something to that effect when they arrive at the scene of the fire. I didn't know there was a comic, but you're right about Simone's dad. I'd forgotten that. Though that depends on the exact timeline six months ago. The first dream we know Peter had was of Nathan's accident, which he had concurrent to the accident (which would make some amount of sense for a fledgling power). We don't know exactly when he starts working for Simone's dad, but it has to be after his graduation party. First time I watched "Six Months Ago," I assumed the accident was the night of the party, but on rewatching, there's no clear indicator as to exactly when it happened. So...is possibility.

I still sort of like the idea of Peter having to call up the image of the person with the power. This is because it would limit his ability to a certain extent, especially with Sylar's powers. After ".07%" Peter theoretically has all of Sylar's powers, which is a crapload of them, but we haven't really seen him use them. (Telekinesis maybe? Don't remember. But certainly not the freezing, or idetic memory, or super-hearing, or dissolving, or super-speed, etc.) There could be a couple of reasons for this. 1 - It takes him time to absorb powers and that was too many to get all in one encounter. 2 - He has to have some knowledge of the power to use it conciously and Sylar only tends to use a few of his powers in any given fight. But I like the idea of 3 - he'd have to think of Sylar to use it. It's sort of interesting to posit that he'd have an easier time using powers of people he is close to/cares for than those of strangers or people he hates. After all, the abilities we've seen him use the most are flying, regenerating, and invisibility, and Peter cares for Claude, Claire, and Nathan to varying degrees.

OK, this is just free-form thinking about the show now (hey, I'm still trying to absorb). But I really need a timeline for each of the characters, because we the audience know a lot about what's going on but each individual character only knows a piece and I can't always remember who knows what.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Remember that the Agency knows more about most Heroes than they know about themselves--they knew Claire's mom had a power but I don't think they knew what it was going to be. Nathan's accident was right after the party, so you're right, that might mean it wasn't Simone's dad. Could be Ma. At the time, actually, I wondered if it was Nathan's wife who had that particular gift.

We've often wondered about Peter's control/arsenal. He can call up TK reflexively now, and invisibility as well. Flying requires deliberate thought but it seems to be that way for Nathan as well. I do think he's absorbed every new power Sylar has (super-speed? I don't remember him getting that one) but doesn't know about them so hasn't used them. I think he may need to consciously activate them the first time and then he has them at his beck and call. Notice, though, that Peter absorbed and began to use Ted's ability without even knowing Ted, and he first tapped Matt's power the same way.

I haven't seen a clear timeline for the characters anywhere yet.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Peter reflexively used Matt's and Ted's abilities while in their presence, just like he reflexively used Nathan's, Claire's and Claude's initially. (He didn't even know he was using Claude's at first.) I think it's a different ballgame when they're there. I'd have to rewatch, though, to see when and how he starts using TK and mind-reading routinely.

Of course, there's also a difference in types of powers between those the mutant has to deliberately turn on (like Nathan's flying or Hiro's teleportation) and those the mutant has to deliberately turn off (like Matt's mind-reading or Ted's radiation).

I'm inferring superspeed from "Homecoming." When they're running away from Sylar, he's at the bottom of the steps, then suddenly at the top. Of course, in a later episode he told super-hearing mechanic she couldn't hear his footsteps because he didn't have any, so they might be implying a levitation/flying type of power (though that sort of cheapens the uniqueness of Nathan's gift).

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

If you read the novels, you see that there's a Hero in the future with superspeed. So far we've not had any power duplication. I think it was just levitation--Sylar has used his to move around before.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

There are novels?

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I meant the online graphic novels.

[tirtzah.livejournal.com]

Yeah the speculation used to be that Peter got his prophetic dreams from Simone's father, but it was discounted when it was shown that he had the one about Nathan's accident before he became a hospice nurse. (I still think Simone's dad was involved though, they're always on his rooftop.) So then suspicion switched to Ma Petrelli. Of course the visions are only one power, so if both his parents have/had powers it begs the question what the other one was.

Man they have a lot of ground to cover in the last episode (I doubt they'll get to all of it).