Theory:Peter's scar

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The following fan theories are about Peter's scar.

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Theories

Theory	Citations	Notes
Peter will get the scar from Hiro.	None	+ Peter's scar is the shape of a line, just the shape a sword slash would leave. - The scar could be caused by a piece of glass or a laser beam. + Kring said the scar "has something to do with a sword".
Peter will get the scar in the presence of the Haitian.	None	+ The Haitian can suppress at least some powers, so if Peter was wounded in his presence and the scar formed, cell regeneration might not heal the existing scar. - The Haitian's power dampening is not absolute as Nathan was able to fly away in his presence. + However, Nathan flying away was unexpected as before flying he looked as if he was going to tackle HRG and the Haitian. This would have surprised the Haitian, and maybe his power dampening requires some deal of conscious effort. By the time he thought to use his power, Nathan could have flown out of the Haitian's range. • Did the injuries he received in the presence of the Haitian during Future Claire's torturing heal afterwards? • It could be that because Nathan's ability is synthetic, the blocking didn't work as well. • Peter calls his abilities back by empathic mimicry. If the Haitian blocks the EM, maybe he can stop Peter from calling back his regeneration.
Future Peter's scar is the mirror image of a scar Linderman has.	None	+ Linderman has a faint scar that is most visible when pausing episodes, most notably .07%. - The scar mirror images could be irrelevant, as the scar could be actor Malcolm McDowell's and not the character's.
A character has an ability which can permanently disfigure people who can regenerate.	None	+ Angela's vision shows Knox easily ripping Claire's head off. Perhaps he is powerful enough to cause permanent damage to heroes with rapid cell regeneration. - This shuts down the brain so they can't regenerate not by overcoming their rapid cell regeneration.
An object being lodged in his face while he healed will cause the scar.	None	+ If something prevents the skin from closing as it normally would, it may start to heal around the obstruction (much like pierced ears heal around an earring). - However, he can have cellular regeneration. This could mean that every cell "missing" from it's original place is re-made and put back in the proper place, therefore there would be no scar. For example, in .07%, when the share of glass is taken out of his brain, the brain fully heals, so surely the scar would have disappeared. • Regenerators have to manually replace body pieces that got out of their places. Maybe Peter does not want to put the two pieces of skin together and make the scar vanishes. • Skin isn't like bone, everytime skin has been cut in the show, it just grows back and looks nice and neat.
The reason why Peter still has the scar, even if he has the cheerleader's ability, is an emotional reason. Whatever the reason is, it seems to have blocked the healing of this scar tissue.	None	+ In the explosion future, Peter seems to take on any request Hiro asks because of his guilt of the explosion; after 5 years Peter has not been able to forgive himself and seems to be guided by the emotions of guilt. + Within the real world there have been cases where people unable to heal from a wound because of emotional reasons or to have caused damage to their bodies because of an emotional reasons such as broken heart syndrome. - This should not apply to exposed future Peter. + Peter's power is empathetic. He has described the process of accessing it as remembering how that person "made him feel". Perhaps it is associated with (even inflicted by?) someone close to him who is always in his mind.
Peter's getting a scar is an inevitable event in any timeline.	Writers Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite said about Peter's scar, "First, it is not a mistake, Peter can regenerate, but he still has the scar. Secondly, we'll show you how later on in the series. We promise."	+ Future Peter as seen in The Second Coming and The Butterfly Effect has the scar, despite having saved New York City. • Since Peter's scar appears in every future we've seen so far, it is likely that it is a result from an inevitable interaction or confrontation with someone, and not tied to a single event in history.
Peter, in the original dark future, gains the scar before meeting Claire. Then, after he gains the regeneration ability, he gets the scar during some experiment once the heroes are announced to the general public.	Future Peter states that there were experiments. (The Second Coming)	+ It is possible that at some point in the alternate future, Peter was taken for experimentation and injected with something to cancel his powers, either temporarily or until they reversed it and gave him back his powers. In this case, his ability to regenerate would be gone and in an attempt to prove it, he is cut across his face by the person who is conducting the experiment. It may be symbolic in the future, as a way for the government (or whoever was doing the experimenting) to show other evolved humans that their powers can be taken from them. • When Peter agrees to stay with the Company, after nearly killing Nathan, he takes pills that cancel his powers. This is just evidence that something could be created to remove, cancel, or at least suspend powers. - The experiments were most likely performed on people that did not originally have abilities.
Future Peter could heal the scar if he wanted to, but chooses not to.	None	+ Future Peter has shown the ability to heal. - Rapid cell regeneration is a passive ability, which means that it'll activate with or without intention. • This seems to be true for "true" healers like Claire or Sylar, but Peter has to think about the power to use it. This is why he is shot in the stomach and killed. He may have developed the power as to be able to heal certain areas but not others. - He obviously wasn't thinking about it when he was killed with that shard of glass in volume one. He obviously wasn't thinking about it when he lost his memory at the beginning of volume two. Claude has already taught him to make it a passive ability. He doesn't need to think about it. And being able to heal only specific areas does not fit with what we've seen of rapid cell regeneration so far. + By removing the glass, his brain had no reason to prevent his original ability to work, and since Claire was by his side, he could have "reabsorbed" her ability. + As seen in Turn and Face the Strange through Sylar's use of the ability, Claire's rapid cell regeneration can be suppressed. - Sylar said he squeezed extra to give out more blood, and Danko lied about him being dead. Sylar didn't turn it off.
After his father stole Peter's powers, Peter was somehow slashed across the face and was unable to regenerate, causing his scar to stay permanently.	None	+ Peter can only hang on to one power now and it is highly likely that he will get the scar when he doesn't have regeneration. After he gets the scar, he might get regeneration from Claire but still not heal. + Peter lost his powers. (Dying of the Light) + Peter has not been able to heal from any of his injuries thus far. - The Future Peter seen with the scar was able to use his other abilities. Why not rapid cellular regeneration? + Future Peter may have had his empathic mimicry restored some time in the future that we haven't seen yet, and then regained his secondary powers afterwards. This happened to Hiro, who'd lost his power to Arthur, which had been restored by Matt Jr.
The scar has no purpose other than to distinguish future Peter from regular. Also, scars look cool.	None	+ A scar that big is easy to notice. + All incarnations of future Peter are significantly cooler than present-day Peter. + Not to mention more bad-ass. - The scar was first mentioned long before Future Peter was shown.
Baby Matt will use his ability to partially restore Peter's regeneration, and this is how he gets the scar.	Matt's ability has incompletely restored Hiro's space-time manipulation.	+ Peter's partially restored regeneration might not heal old wounds, only new ones. - The future Peters did not seem limited in their use of space-time manipulation, electric manipulation, super speed, invisibility, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, body insertion, illusion, telepathy or flight.
Someone with space-time manipulation, has his ability developed so far that they can stop items, people or just pieces of the human body in time, and did that to Peter's scar so it isn't going to regenerate.	None	+ Five years is a long time, they might have find someone who can do this. - In the explosion future, Peter had his scar in 2007, months after the explosion. The only two known space-time manipulators were himself and Hiro. + Arnold too, he just wasn't on the show yet but he was there. - There was no reason for Arnold to do this, not for him to be involved.
Sylar gave Peter the scar.	None	+ With his ability he knows how complicated systems work, he might have find a way to make the scar stop regeneration. - In one of the possible futures where Peter had the scar, Sylar was presumed dead.
Edgar will give Peter the scar.	None	- Tim Kring said that it had something to do with a sword. + It had to do something with a sword, a knife is like a small sword. + Edgar lost from Peter while fighting, he wants revenge.
Peter will obtain the scar by fighting with Hiro, he gets a life threatening moment and has more adrenaline then normal, causing him to get his old ability back. The scar is a trauma.	None	+ Tim Kring said that it had something to do with a sword. + All future Peters have empathic mimicry. - Neither of them encountered Arthur. + That's never stated. - Peter from exposed future didn't know Arthur was behind creating the formula. • And Arthur didn't have regeneration during Season 1, when the explosion happened, so he most likely was killed in the explosion future. + Arthur was one of the creators of the plan to explode NY, so he might left NY or was informed by Linderman. - Angela poisoned Arthur in the original timeline. No one knew he was alive. + No one ever confirmed that, maybe only Linderman knew.
Peter's scar was caused by a blade made out of a metal that can block regenerative abilities	Materials like that are all over the place in other works like X-Men	+ It would explain how he can have the scar despite regenerative abilities.
Peter's scar was a spoiler for him losing his powers later in the series.	None	+ If Peter had cellular regeneration, it wouldn't be possible to get a scar. - Future Peter had regeneration and still got a scar. he also had more than one power. + Peter could have theoretically gotten the scar first, then developed his powers to be able to have more than one at a time.