(no subject)

[ivyfic]

And the heroes cogitating continues... Forgive me for catching up with a whole season of meta.

First, let me say that Mohinder is hot. Really, quite spectacularly hot. That accent--guh.

However, he has now been a patsy three times! First to Eden (not surprising at all when she turned out to be a mole), then to Sylar, and now to the company. At this point, he's not coming off as naive. He's coming off as stupid. Really stupid. That's reason one.

Reason two--his only purpose on the show is exposition. He doesn't really have a heroic journey going on. Most of what he does is give the science-babble of how all this works. And since the technobabble is, as is usually true for shows like this, the weakest part of the story. I always roll my eyes when he's on-screen.

I don't know. Maybe I'd like him more if he wasn't spewing completely untrue urban legends about genetics and neurobiology. (Most humans only use 10% of their brain! Um, no. fMRI's have disproved that. It's difficult to track down the right gene because of all the millions of base pairs! Honey, most of that's junk. It's still difficult to track down the right base pairs, but you should know that most of the DNA in a cell is not genes. And if that's true, why do you immediately know that Peter's DNA is changing? And why can you give Molly your antibodies and have it work? Did you even blood-type her before the transfusion? Gah!)

So, yes. Mohinder is a useless character that goes around talking shit about genetics and evolution (hell, the X-Men movie did a better job at the "science") and alternately endangering himself and other people. And I don't like him.

Comments

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

I don't like him either--and I don't have the whole "but he's hot" thing to fall back upon--but I understand why he's there. We need some non-powered characters to give us a more "normal" viewpoint. Ando's the champ at this, of course, esp. for us geeks, but Mohinder is meant to provide an objective perspective.

I'm also willing to buy some of his idiocy because, before he came to the States, he was a ridiculously sheltered academe. Confront him with term papers and cheating on tests and departmental politics and he's probably an expert. Hit him with life-and-death struggles and espionage and all that and you can understand why he's clueless, though I think they have overdone that a bit.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Confront him with term papers and cheating on tests and departmental politics and he's probably an expert.

Considering that he was first introduced spouting off the '10% of our brains is all we got!' bullshit, I wouldn't say that that was a given. Mohinder isn't exactly on great terms with his university; he's got exactly one colleague who even listens to his stories; and his ex-girlfriend is like, "Dude, even industry thinks you're a crackpot."

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

I didn't say his science makes sense--that's a whole other kettle of fish. But he's an academe and ill-equipped to deal with the world, or people, beyond his little fishbowl. I've known far too many grad students and professors exactly like him.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

I basically pretend that it's magic, not science, and go "lalalalala" whenever they pretend to talk about science. But it still annoys me.

Add to that the fact that I don't particularly *care* about his issues (though I do want to know what the hell is up with the kid in his dreams in India because WTF was that about?) and his scenes get the FF quite often.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

You know, I have a much easier time with photon torpedoes and reversing the polarity than I do with stuff like this. I think because this is how many people think evolution and genetics do work and oh it just hurts to see. If they spent less time trying to explain it I would be so much happier.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

I wish they'd just call it magic and be done with it, seriously.

And how much do I love your icon? They were totally just off smoking a joint together in the stairwell.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Smoking a joint. Yeah...that...

The photo is from linaerys's lj. It's seriously the only Heroes pic I had on my computer when I decided that I needed an icon.

I'd prefer calling it magic. That's one of the reasons I like Supernatural. It's magic. Yes, it has rules, but they don't feel the need to spend fifteen minutes of every episode justifying the fantastic bits scientifically (thank you, Rodney McKay).

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

"Smoking a joint. Yeah...that..."

Joint, pole, whatever. ;)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Hooray! NO ONE LIKES MOHINDER!

Every objection you've raised I've already lamented, so it's nice that someone else suffers along with me. The last episodes with the antibodies (TO WHAT? OH MY SCIENCE!) and trying to make him seem important are just useless. It was better when there was the lie that he could identify these people and cure them.

As for his ability to get duped...yeah, that's why linaerys calls him "Mohimbo." Okay, Eden could have used her wacky pipes on him and she was a cute girl who believed his crazy theories and satisfied his very Oedipal antagonism towards his dad (she didn't have to be boning Papa Suresh; just knowing and liking him was bad enough). Eden? I buy.

But SYLAR? Even the swiss-cheesed brain that Mrs. Bennet has been left with sussed out his creep inside of a few hours. Mohinder travelled with "Zane Taylor" for three days. They shared car trip intimacy! Adjoining hotel rooms! THEY MADE EACH OTHER CAFFIENATED BEVERAGES!! You can't know how someone talks their tea and not know whether or not they like to eat BRAINS!!!!

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

I don't know--it depends upon whether, when you fix them their tea, you ask them "would you like some brains in that or not?" :)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I'd like to think that I'd have some clue without having to ask that.

But really, I am no one to judge. I'm very clueless my own self. I'd probably see Sylar at the door and go, "Hi! Want to be my new best friend?" too.

[trakkie.livejournal.com]

You would only say that because you think he's smoking hot, though. Maybe that's Mohinder's excuse?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I think it must be. In that case, I ought to be nicer to Mohimbo 'cause it would be awfully hard to overcome that. Even with the assistance of self-preservation instinct.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Sylar? Hot??? *gag*

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Eden just annoyed me in general. So happy when she died. No one with eyes that big should be trusted.

With the road trip, I was just wondering how long Sylar could keep it up. "Zane, I've found another one! *drives there* OMG! This guy had his head sawed open and his brain removed too! What are the chances that this keeps happening? ... Let's find the next person on the list. I've got a feeling this one will still have her brain."

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Eden was annoying. Did her bit to try and redeem herself, but still stupid.

Sylar obviously didn't keep his ruse up long, since he doesn't have any other powers than the ones we saw him steal. Knowing Mohinder, it would have played exactly the way you said. I bet Zane Taylor was like super famous and shit and his death was all over the news such that Mohinder couldn't help but stumble over it 'cause otherwise I don't buy that he would ever have figured out Sylar for the killer on his own.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

since he doesn't have any other powers than the ones we saw him steal.

He has a ton of powers we didn't see him steal. But I think Zane and mechanic are the only people he killed on the roadtrip.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Also, Sylar must have some warm squishy spot for Mohinder, otherwise there's no reason why he would've still been alive when Peter showed up.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Maybe he was interrupted? Oh whatever. I won't even pretend that Mohinder isn't Sylar's BFF 'cause he totally called Mohinder when he was freaking out about exploding.

(And the powers Sylar has? We've seen him steal all of them, actually. He took the telekinesis from the nerdy guy from CSI and the ice powers were taken from someone at the crime scene where we met Matt--the corpsicle with its brain removed was Molly Walker's dad.)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I don't think we have seen Sylar take all his powers. The fact that we saw Molly's dad frozen doesn't mean that's where he acquired that ability. And he has some sort of levitation or super-speed ability we haven't seen him take. And what about the "I can slice people's skulls open by pointing my finger" power?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The levitation or speed I think is really just telekinesis, which is also how he does the skull-splitting. He just refined telekinesis to be an invisible weapon, forklift, whatever. It's like he's the Green Lantern only his ring powers are invisible. Also, he has no ring.

But you've got me on the Walker thing. It's possible that that's not where he got the ice powers. Otherwise, the show's been pretty good about not letting him develop powers out of nowhere that we wouldn't understand how he'd gotten them.

Except for the one that lets him rise from the dead, apparently, because the doctor at Bennet's organization definitely had a corpse on his hands (and, presuming he was a competant enough doctor--he was trusted with Sylar's containment and life, so I assume he was--he would be able to tell the difference if Sylar weren't actually dead).

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I'm going to fight you on this statement that levitation and telekinesis are the same power. In certain stupid Marvel comics they are, but not always.

Think of it this way. TK is moving a chair. Flying is moving a chair you're sitting in. The two don't necessarily go together. Besides, Nathan can fly, yet has no intimation of TK abilities.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

But that's not equivalent. It's like a "all horses are mammals, but not all mammals are horses" kind of logic argument. All telekinetics should be able to fly. They only have to lift themselves as if they were any other object. In fact, since they are themselves, it should be pretty easy to get an idea of how to move the object.

Flight--pure flight--on its own is something else. So, all telekinetics should be able to fly, but not all fliers are telekinetic. And I don't just base that on Marvel. It's true of the telekinetic in The 4400, too. Besides, Nathan might not be levitating. Levitating is what telekinetics can do. He can also speed up or slow down, implying that he has (oh God help me) thrust to his lift off. If he can sonic boom, he ain't just levitatin'.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Nope, not buying that levitation is a necessary consequence of telekinesis. It's one that's easy to justify within the rules of the world, but I don't think TK inherently implies levitation unless we've been told it does, which we haven't.

Again--you can pick up objects, like a pencil. So by your logic, you should be able to pick yourself up just as easily, so you should be able to levitate as long as you had a good grip on yourself.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I think we are at an impasse. I say, with greatest respect, "RAR RAR RARARARAR." And declare myself the winner.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about that rising from the dead thing too. Unless his power is "play dead," Hiro's whole must-keep-Sylar-from-getting-Claire's-power thing wouldn't make any sense if he could already resurrect himself.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I wonder if he was just able to repress his signs of life? 'Cause yeah, otherwise play-dead powers is already cheating. And it's a way for the endless, "He's not really dead!" come backs that ruin comic books.