Talk:Peter Petrelli

Screwed Up

Does anyone else think he's going to be really screwed up phsychologically after five years in isolation with Sylar?--Boycool42 21:10, 11 March 2010 (EST)

• I think that, once they woke up and realized that only a day had passed, the whole experience was downplayed in their minds. In any case, they got along eventually.--PJDEP - Talk - Polls and Opinions 21:33, 11 March 2010 (EST)
  • Peter seems to be a little bit socially retarted now. "I never liked Carnivals." Now, before the Wall, Peter would have had some 5 minute response about being special. But he just said, "Yep."--Boycool42 21:42, 11 March 2010 (EST)
    • I don't know. That whole bit (which I really dislike, btw) seemed to be meant as a typical short bad-ass line, nothing profound.--PJDEP - Talk - Polls and Opinions 21:46, 11 March 2010 (EST)
      • I have a question. Is it five years total or five years after Peter got there (totaling eight years)?--Boycool42 07:22, 12 March 2010 (EST)
        • Hello? Anyone there? T.T--Boycool42 21:36, 14 March 2010 (EDT)

EM Gone a Good Thing?

I was rewatching early Season 3, and him being stripped of his powers was a good choice considering how dangerous it was to gain powers you didn't know had, seeing how both IR and IA are dangerous to possess. Anyone else agree? --TrueBlueBrooklynite 21:41, 2 August 2010 (EDT)

• It was never a good thing! Powerless (and less-powerful) Peter is just boring to watch! And now that the show is over, Peter isn't even worth mentioning anymore. At least if he still had his full UNIQUE power, we'd be able to say: 'Superman? Yea he's still the king. But Peter IS pretty badass.' Now all we can say is Peter used to be cool, but let's watch something else. Ruler 06:36, 11 August 2010 (EDT)
  • Ha, you should watch the season 4 scene "Peter beats the hells out of Sylar", one ability used. AltesUTC CH 06:07, 12 August 2010 (EDT)
    • I agree with Ruler. I think this contributed to Heroes' downward spiral. The explanation for taking away Peter's power was 'he's too powerful. Eventually people will wonder, why doesn't he just use this or that power? But Peter's power was amazing and unique, it had a good message (for me, it meant that we really need others, and drove home the 'everyone is connected' idea), and Peter was the draw of the series for me. When Peter's ability was changed in season 4, I lost interest, but watched hoping his power would return in full. In addition, Peter wasn't fully adept at controlling all his abilities, which left a lot of room for compelling storytelling without making him too powerful. Finally, he was a good balance to Sylar: both collected powers and were rivals. Without Peter's EM, it just killed that whole possibility. In my mind, they could have taken so many routes to keep him in check and make the stories compelling without just taking EM away. I have thought of five (six if you count the point I made about Peter's control, above), and if I can, then professional writers certainly could have come up with these and more:

1. they could have had Peter continue to struggle with volatile abilities like induced radioactivity, necessitating his use of only one or a few powers at a time to maintain control (or consciousness), or weakening the degree of strength he has with some or all powers for the same reason. An ongoing struggle for self-control would have been compelling, kept Peter from being omnipotent, and even if he wasn't the focus of the series as he was in season 1, he could have remained without causing a problem since there are so many other characters to develop

2. they could have just stopped his absorption after he collected a lot of powers, and in-story everyone could have been surprised that Peter had a limit;

3. They could have redefined (i.e. 'retconned') Empathic Mimicry to require that Peter make a connection to someone before he absorbs their power. This one works well within the story, since early on Peter naturally empathized with everyone, explaining his rapid collection of abilities in the first season. As the series progressed, Peter was emotionally withdrawn and distrustful of people, which could explain why he didn't collect new powers (or only could hold one at a time, as in season 4). It could even have helped as a new story-arc: Peter's quest to learn how to connect with people again;

4. Connected with #3 above, they could have had Peter's Ability Replication expand in power over time, like the Heroes Evolutions character Draph. Even if they wanted to make Peter's ability not automatic and keep the requirement that he touch people to copy an ability, at least allow him to hold more than one at a time.

5. The Formula could have restored Peter's Empathic Mimicry. The writers rebooted Sylar in a similar way with the Shanti virus--Peter could have started from scratch, too. Combine this with #3, and you have an interesting and unique character who isn't omnipotent. --ADAP7IVE 19:12, 13 December 2010 (EST)

• ...or had Matt Parkman, Jr. turn on his power, had Paulette Hawkins turn it on or augment his Ability Replication to hold more powers at a time (maybe even an infinite amount), Something to do with Ando's supercharging...--ADAP7IVE 13:25, 18 December 2010 (EST

6. Hi there people, the new power is lame beyond belief. There were tons of way to limit EM : - Make Peter actually master only A FEW powers. Let him be able to take everything but only mastering the powers he is really close to the people he took them from. For instance, he could fly. But he might have had a lot of problem copying any of Sylar's powers anymore.

- Make Peter able to control his EM (that was the initial plan). It was said that getting too much power makes him unstable. Thus the need for him to control it so he doesn't get too powerful/instable. He could even have found a way to somehow reboot himself after season 1.

- Give him Arthur's power. Writers said Arthur Sylar and Peter had the same power, only manifesting in different ways. Well then there was the budget cut and while Sylar totally went this way (he got EM for christ's sake), Peter got trashed beyond anything we could expect. Peter is no Arthur. But by getting "tougher", he could have got this power. The thing is, he would never steal any of his friend's power, making them still as important as ever (if not more important), while Peter would steal only the few villains he would encounter. Stealing a power takes a few seconds, it would be easily dodged if the villain isn't already beaten (and doesn't get caught by surprise)

Anyway, there were tons of ways to get a decent Peter, smart, powerful enough but not overshadowing the others, and yet, we got a guy who kept threatening people in volume 3, flew away during the whole volume 4, and ... whatever did he do last season, besides his cool (and only) fight with Edgar (I'm not counting the pathetic ping pong match of the finale).--Kleith 18:55, 5 June 2011 (EDT)

They could've restricted his ability to emotional empathy. If Peter suddenly became less sympathetic to others (which he did), he could've lost control of his power, lose access to everything he absorbed and stop being a god. Alignment shift? No more level-ups! AltesUTC CH