Theory:Shattering

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The following fan theories are about shattering.

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Theories

Theory	Citations	Notes
Trevor's power is the ability to generate a blast of acoustic resonance at the precise frequency that can shatter glass.	None	+ In a BTE interview, it was stated that shattering was the ability to point your finger at glass and make it explode. This particular scientific explanation of his power would explain why it affects glass and nothing else. • Not all glasses shatter at the same frequency, other glass objects should have shattered. + Shattering might be able to focus where the frequency goes. - That would be a form of sound manipulation. The 'firing' motion which Trevor had to make to activate his ability would not produce any noticeable sound, on any frequency. + It's a television show; the writers can make it have any sound they want it to make. Regardless, it's possible that the gun gesture was simply him adding his own "style" to the ability, it may not be required to make it work. - Trevor was rendered helpless when his hands were immobilized by Sylar; it is heavily implied that he did need to make the 'firing' gesture to activate his ability. • He may have just needed his hands. • Even if he could use it without moving, it's possible he didn't know how to channel the ability without moving. + The 'firing' motion Trevor had to make to activate his ability shouldn't cause glass to explode either. • It can be a form of sound manipulation, there is no plausible explanation as to why it couldn't be. - All other abilities involving manipulation of sound worked through the user's voice (at least for offensive purposes). If all he is doing is making a 'gun hand' gesture, then that action produces almost no sound of any kind. Forget sound effects; Trevor probably wouldn't have been able to channel enough sonic energy from that to so much as move a glass, much less break it. + Siren's song works by manipulating sound, and does not involve the user's voice. - Siren's song works by manipulating ambient sound, not creating new sonic energy. Shattering created sound in some way. • Originally all fire abilities required some physical body to work, such as the user's hands or throat. However, spontaneous combustion discarded this. - The argument isn't that he didn't use his voice; the argument is that the gesture he made wouldn't produce enough sonic energy to destroy the glass. + As stated above, it's a television show. The gesture could make as much noise as they wanted it to make. • To some degree, siren's song is a form of sound manipulation as well. - We still know almost nothing about what siren's song does. + It clearly involves sound however, and can be used for offensive purposes. - Directing a sonic frequency along a thin line to affect a single object would be like trying to strike a nail on the head with an ICBM launched from the other side of the world. + It could be an effect of the ability, how it works. Artistic license exists. - The level of impossibility would be highly abnormal, given Heroes' history of trying to make scientifically plausible abilities. - Sound manipulation is an ability which explicitly deals with frequencies and sonic energy. None of its users were able to focus energy to the degree necessary to destroy a single object in a room without damaging anything else.
Shattering worked by sculpting air into a solid form, and then firing it at a target.	None	+ It seems plausible. + This may explain why it only affects fragile objects. • Just because we only saw him blow up glasses doesn't mean he could only affect glass objects. See below for more details on that. • It was stated in a BTE interview that it only affects glass. • It was said that it affects glass, not that it only affects glass. - This would rather result in pushing glasses, not breaking them. • It depends on how fast the air was fired, and how dense the "sculpting" made it. + Mulligan felt something when Pearl tried to shoot him with her ability.
Shattering is related to telekinesis.	None	+ Telekinesis allows the user to move objects at a distance; Trevor was able to destroy objects at a distance. + Neither ability has any visible sign other than its effects. - Shattering seemed to exclusively affect glass, there is no reason why telekinesis would be limited to glass. • An ability which only affects glass would be utterly useless. It would not be advantageous for the organism which developed. + There are other pretty useless abilities like luminescence or chlorine gas exudation. - The ability to spew toxic gas at your enemies would be extremely useful. - One of the oldest methods of getting the upper hand in combat is to somehow screw up your opponent's ability to see (via a thrown handful of sand, facing so the sun is behind you, etc). + Both were seen used offensively. - BTE said Sylar didn't use shattering much, perhaps because it is useless. • An ability is only useless if the evolved human doesn't bother developing it. Sylar had telekinesis, a much more versatile ability, which can in theory have similar effects to this ability. • Evolution throws out random mutations regardless of whether it is useless or not. Its "usefulness factor" only determines whether it remains with the species. • We only ever saw him blow up glass. By that logic, levitation is useful only against large, round boulders and square, chiseled blocks of stone. • In a BTE interview, it was stated that shattering was pointing your finger and making glasses explode. • It didn't say making glass explode was the only thing it could do, there might be other things it does that Sylar doesn't know. Until Arthur told him, he didn't know he could acquire abilities without examining the brain. • Due to his intuitive aptitude Sylar knows all there is to a power. The only reason he didn't know that he could absorb abilities through empathy was because he never observed his own brain. • Intuitive aptitude is extremely potent, but not omniscient. Sylar may not have known about its full potential. Also, if his ultimate goal is to procure more powers, then using an ability that could potentially turn a special's brain into a thin layer of goo laminated over the walls, floor, and ceiling would be very stupid. It is more efficient for him to open people's skulls. • Sylar's mastery over powers is most likely related to his intuitive aptitude, Brian Davis could barely push a cup across a table while Gabriel was able to pin a man to a wall and slice his skull open, only a few short weeks after acquiring telekinesis. He would most likely know a basic fact about an ability, like whether shattering only affected glass. • Sylar did not kill evolved humans exclusively. When Audrey chased him out of the FBI building, he chose to telekinetically manipulate her into pointing her gun at her head, something that she was able to resist and something that ultimately prevented him from killing her. If he could have simply "blasted" her head off, he would have. • Sylar likes to torture people, perhaps making her shoot herself was more amusing to him. • There's a time and a place, Sylar was fleeing from the FBI. He most likely wouldn't have stopped to torture her unless it was the only method available to him. • If the writers had let Sylar use that ability, then both Matt and Audrey would have been killed, thus derailing the story line of Season One. • Which makes it all the more likely that they wouldn't give him such an ability. • When Villains was in the making they intended to show Sylar acquiring an ability he was known to possess, but in the heat of things, they just gave him that ability. • Electric manipulation can be used to levitate, Sylar doesn't seem to know about that. • Sylar didn't examine Elle's brain, he absorbed her ability through empathy. As shown with his initial experience with electric manipulation and shape shifting, he has less control over abilities absorbed through empathy then those he takes with his original method. Since he took shattering with his original method, he is aware of all of its functions. • Sylar took enhanced hearing with intuitive aptitude, yet it took him a while to control it as well. • There is a difference between learning how to control an ability and knowing all of the functions of an ability. • Sylar can fly, and can levitate with telekinesis, even if electric manipulation can be used to levitate, he has no use for it. This may be why he was never shown doing it, even if he was aware of it.
Shattering only affected glass.	In a BTE interview, it was stated that shattering was pointing your finger and making glasses explode.	+ This may be why Sylar never used the ability, it's essentially worthless. • It doesn't say it works exclusively on glass, and since Sylar already an ability far more versatile, he may have chosen not to use this one. He has abilities which he was never shown to use after acquiring. • The wording implies that it can only be used on glass. If it could be used on other material types they probably would have said "pointing your finger and making objects explode". • Glass could be an example, as this was what Trevor was shown exploding. - Glass is not dangerous in any way. There would be no evolutionary pressure for humans to develop an ability which only affects glass. + As stated above, evolution does not create mutations that would be beneficial for the species, the mutations created are random. Usefulness only determines whether it remains in the species. After all, the ability to kill everyone around you, including potential mates, family members, more intelligent persons, etc. is hardly beneficial. - Killing attackers would be useful, and if one managed to develop a fine control over the ability, it could be quite an advantage. + This is assuming it couldn't be controlled. Regardless, what was stated above about evolution is correct. - Glass objects would make good 'targets' for the demonstration of many abilities (alchemy, disintegration, telekinesis...). They're small, fairly ubiquitous, and cheap. • If shattering was simply blasting or exploding objects, it should have been demonstrated on a less hazardous material. Glass, while cheap, is more expensive then a plastic cup or something similar. Glass shattering would also leave behind fragments, which are difficult to see and are very sharp. - Since Trevor didn't explain what he was going to do before blowing up the glasses, cost wouldn't be a factor. - Glass objects may have been easier for the SFX team to 'shatter'. Making a plastic cup appear to shatter would be much more difficult; plastic cups were invented so people wouldn't have to break out a dustpan and broom every time they dropped a glass. - If you shatter an object into very small pieces, almost any substance could be hazardous. If you blew up a plastic cup, then floating bits of plastic could end up in your lungs. Blow up a piece of wood, and you could produce a flying cloud of splinters. - Destroying a glass is more visually impressive than destroying a Dixie cup. + Glass is a much more obvious hazard. You're essentially guaranteed to have trouble if you've shattered glass, but the chances of inhaling bits of plastic after blowing up a plastic cup are low. - Gabriel seemed to have rather old-fashioned views on kitchenware. It may be that glasses were all he used to drink from. - Trevor's power reduced the glasses to very, very small pieces. Using the ability on a plastic cup could create a floating cloud of plastic fibers which would then be carried throughout the room by the force of detonation. - Shattering seemed to reduce the glasses to minuscule pieces. It may have made the glass into rounded chunks that could be cleaned up afterwards with no risk of injury. + None of Sylar's victims looked like they were harmed by shattering. - Sylar's ultimate goal was to procure more powers; using an ability that could potentially turn a special's brain into a thin layer of goo laminated over the walls, floor, and ceiling would be very stupid. + Sylar didn't kill evolved humans exclusively, and shattering would likely be able to do more then kill; he doesn't have to aim for the head. There were plenty of situations where having a psychokinetic gun would have been useful to Sylar. - Murders committed via telekinesis are at least semi-explicable by the laws of science (as the only difference between stabbing someone with a knife and throwing it at them telekinetically is that the latter method leaves no trace evidence on the handle). If he had killed, say, the FBI agent guarding Molly Walker (One Giant Leap) by blowing him up, then the government's questions would have been words to the tune of "Oh God, what manner of alien death-ray does this man have? We must get it for ourselves!" - Also, Trevor's existence was unknown until after the events of Season One. It would have confused viewers to see him blow up items/people; they would have wondered how telekinesis (one of the primary weapons in Sylar's arsenal) could do that. + Given that shattering was not shown at all in Season One, giving it a useless function would quell the curiosity that would be aroused from not seeing it. - Trevor was meant to have an ability Sylar was known to possess, according to BTE interview, but in the heat of production, he ended up having another ability. + And since he ended up with an ability that was previously unseen, they most likely gave it a useless function. - Tom Miller's ability was extremely potent. Even though Sylar stole his ability in I Am Sylar, he has yet to use it. + That's completely irrelevant, the above point is stating that shattering was given a useless function so viewers would not question why Sylar hasn't used it. Sylar was shown acquiring disintegration quite recently, it doesn't raise any questions. • Sylar was brainwashed and locked out of his body shortly after acquiring disintegration, and he only recently gained control. He hasn't had much time to demonstrate it. - Sylar absorbed alchemy from Bob Bishop, but has only used it once in the entire series. Just because Sylar didn't use an ability he absorbed doesn't mean it was useless. - One of Sylar's earliest victims, David, appeared to have been decapitated completely. Sylar may have tested Trevor's power on him, then discarded it when it proved too messy. An exploded body would shower the surroundings with blood. Sylar's modus operandi involves slipping away after a kill. Being covered with scraps of human flesh would make blending into the crowd almost impossible. - Blowing up someone's head would destroy the brain, something Sylar uses most of the time to acquire abilities. - Trevor's ability was referred to as molecular combustion in a Primatech page. That term implies that he shattered the glasses by causing their molecular structure to violently disintegrate. - In the iStory Purpose, an evolved human named Pearl used shattering to destroy a ceramic sink. • Ceramic contains glass. • Different types of ceramic are composed of different materials. A porcelain sink is ceramic, but so is a clay pot from the Bronze Age. - Trevor is supposed to have a full knowledge of his ability. When Sylar try to kill him, Trevor try to use his power on Sylar. It demonstrates that Trevor knew that he can hurt also Sylar and not only the glass. • Trevor was never said to have full knowledge on his ability. He could have had no clue what his power would do to Sylar and only tried it out of desperation.