Theory:Daphne Millbrook

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The following fan theories are about Daphne Millbrook.

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Theories

Theory	Citations	Notes
Future Daphne is the new timeline's version of the agent from Walls.	None.	+ When the explosion future was changed, it could have changed who made the agent ranks. - Future Daphne works for Pinehearst; the other agent works for the Department of Homeland Security. + Both organizations hunt down evolved humans in the future. + The altering of the future could have changed to whom the ability of super speed would go to. - Daphne had already manifested super speed when Hiro and Ando started altering the future. - The agent and Daphne are of different races, so altering the future is unlikely to change any issues in regards to inheritance of the ability. + Altering the future could have prevented a condition that enabled the original agent to develop her ability.
If Daphne charged into someone at super speed, that person would die.	None.	+ The force of her hitting them would be similar to that of a bullet. - Daphne is not made of metal like a bullet. - Think of it this way: If you fell out of a helicopter and managed to land on a person on the ground with speeds similar to Daphne's speed... would you survive? - Matt created an illusion of her hitting Knox while traveling at super speed, and only she was hurt. + Knox has super strength. + The purpose of the illusion was to make Knox think he had killed them. • She would also die or at least get seriously injured. • Her ability could be similar to others we've seen, where she's physically able to take more than the normal person to help with her ability, i.e., Meredith is able to hold fire without being burned and breathe in a room deprived of oxygen from fire. - Meredith's immunity to the effects of fire could actually be another aspect of her ability. Whereas, Daphne's ability is simply being fast, not being less prone to physical harm. • Rule of Ted: Her speed grants an immunity to the effect, otherwise, as the speeds she travels, a speck of dust would be more destructive than any bullet could be. - Daphne can decelerate virtually instantly, so possibly her ability does not increase her effective momentum. Hence crashing would not be any more damaging than a normal person running into a wall. • It could be in her ability to be able to stop almost instantly. • Daphne seems to be able to bring things into her super-speed frame of reference instantly without any negative side effects. When she snatches things out of "normal speed time" they would tear apart if they weren't protected by her ability instantly.
Daphne's spirit animal is the rabbit.	None.	+ Matt's spirit animal is the turtle, so the rabbit could serve as a foil to that in a "tortoise and hare" way. - The tortoise and the hare were not romantically involved. + She is fast, like a rabbit. - Cheetah is the fastest land animal in the world. - But Matt Parkman isn't slow, like a turtle. • Sylar gave Danko a stuffed rabbit the episode before Daphne died. If Daphne was the rabbit as Matt was the turtle, then this would be foreshadowing/irony.
Daphne's power imparts some extra strength.	She can carry at least two grown people with her while moving at super-speed.	+ She carries Matt Parkman and Ando with her to the bike messenger station in Manhattan, presumably all the way from Lawrence, KS. (Our Father) - She isn't seen putting Matt or Ando down after arriving at the messenger station. Rather, it seems that they just ran alongside. It could be that she simply imparts super-speed to anybody that she's touching when she uses it. + She also carried Flint when she broke him out of Level Five. (Dying of the Light") • If Daphne was regularly strong enough to lift Flint and then used her superspeed to run, she wouldn't have to hold onto him very long to carry away. + She visibly carried Samir Mellouk in Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, Part 1. • Daphne may just be strong. + Daphne's cerebral palsy caused her to rely on her arm muscles far more than a normal human. She could have built up her upper body strength prior to receiving her superspeed.
Daphne should have been stuck 16 years in the past when she rescued Hiro.	None.	+ She has no known powers to travel into the future. - In the frames of the Ability supercharging from Ando she did end up with the ability to travel through time. • The "frames"? + It was mentioned in the show that she may be able to travel to the past by going faster than the speed of light, which it appears she may have done. However, to get back to the present day (traveling into the future of where she and Hiro were), traveling faster than light would not have worked to get them back. Something else had to have been done. - Ando came with Daphne. He could have supercharged her again. + Supercharging her again would allow her to run faster than the speed of light. Running faster than the speed of light only allows one to go backward through time, as she did to get to Hiro in the first place. Running faster than light would just take them further into the past. - Maybe it did, but Daphne could have learned how to travel back to the future. + Using what power? She has no known power to slow time down for herself and whoever she is touching, in order to get back to the future. - And who said that running faster than light can bring a person only back in time, not forward? This kind of time traveling isn't understood well for now. Everything is possible, unless it is proved or otherwise. + Traveling faster than the speed of light is a well-known theoretical method of traveling back in time (special relativity), while moving faster than the speed of light is not a theory for moving forward in time. Special relativity is most likely what Matt was referring to when he explained how Daphne may have been able to time travel. - Perhaps she discovered she has said power. - According to special relativity, traveling very fast but not exceeding the speed of light will move you forward through time (the frame of reference for them would slow relative to earth's frame of reference). This part of special relativity is actually well accepted (and tested via atomic clocks). Going backwards by exceeding the speed of light is probably in reality impossible, but still theoretically plausible. Thus Daphne, Hiro, and Ando could go forwards through time by approaching the speed of light without passing it. • If we want to talk "theoretically" it is impossible to reach the speed of light as you start to gain mass as you reach the speed of light so that even more energy is needed to maintain that speed. Nothing moves faster than light. • All ideas concerning faster-than-light travel are theoretical, as they are currently impossible to test in a controlled environment. And, according to the most generally accepted theories concerning special relativity, it is not impossible, it would just simply require infinite energy. Who is to say that part of their abilities does not involve the use of infinite energy? • This seems to be sheer and utter handwaving. Any attempt to reconcile this with modern physics would fall flat on it's face. She apparently travels at a significant portion of the speed of light in general, would would bring along all the relativistic consequences. Decreased length along the axis of travel and increased mass. After she was supercharged, as she accelerated to the speed of light she would have increased her mass as well (without regard as to what would possibly happen after she achieved it) which would have meant by the time she got close she would have done a whole lot more than rustle a few papers (think more pulled the Earth out of its orbit).
Daphne would be unable to activate her ability while underwater.	None.	+ running underwater requires a lot of strength and it is difficult to remain close enough to the bottom to have something to push off of. - Who's that dumb to run underwater? Everybody would swim to the top. • Irrelevant. The theory isn't about whether she would or wouldn't run underwater, but whether she has the capability of doing such an action. - Daphne's speed isn't limited to running, she might be able to swim super fast as well. • Daphne prefers to run on water.
Matt Parkman killed Daphne when they flew into space together.	Daphne's "Fly me to the moon."	+ Suffering bodily damage from a dream state has been shown to cause physical bodily harm as well (such as Matt's knife wound in It's Coming), and flying to the moon would be fatal. - Matt has control over the illusions he creates, he wouldn't let it hurt Daphne. - Flying to the moon didn't kill Matt. + Although it is unknown exactly how this works, it is unlikely that Matt is pushing thoughts into his own head. Hence only Daphne believes she is going to space. - Daphne knew it was an illusion. Her body wouldn't react as though it was real. + Her death directly followed their ascension into space. - Post hoc ergo propter hoc (Correlation, not causation). • We don't know how much time was between Daphne requesting to go to the moon and the scene where her heart stops. + It is unlikely that doctors wouldn't be nearby and instead allowing him to visit if her condition was not stable. - Matt controlled the doctor with his power, they'd leave them alone if he commanded them to. + He wouldn't command them to leave her to die. When doctors think they are losing a patient, they do absolutely everything they can to keep them alive. - Matt controlled the minds of Danko's agents in Cold Snap and Exposed, even though they believed the specials were dangerous and were under direct orders to kill them. One would assume that their brains would be working at the same level. - She may have been kept alive by machines. + Regardless, the doctors must have thought she was stable in her current state. If readings became dangerous, there would be several doctors in there at once. - If her mind was still working but her body was being kept alive by machines, there would be different protocols. Patients high on the "could kick the bucket any moment now" list tend to have receive less medical watch than the patients who have a higher chance at survival.
Daphne can be brought back to life if she comes into contact with Matt Jr.	None.	+ Matt Jr.'s ability may be able to bring people back to life and not just objects. - Matt Jr.'s ability doesn't bring objects to life, it merely powers them, making them function. - Joe Pokaski and Aron Coliete, from Behind the Eclipse Week 19: "Daphne's dead, baby. Daphne's dead." • The writers have lied to us before. • How is ability supercharging a lie? • Greg Grunberg also confirmed that Daphne is gone for good. - In the cases of characters coming back from the dead, only a few hours passed in the longest recorded time between death and resurrection (Noah Bennet in Cautionary Tales). Daphne's been dead for at least a day now, possibly longer. Were Baby Matt to revive her, we don't know if she'd come back fully alive, in a zombie or vegetative state.
Daphne should be able to fly by flapping her arms really fast.	None.	+ Hummingbirds can fly by flapping their tiny wings at 8-10 beats per second. - Wings are naturally adapted for flight, arms aren't. - Daphne said herself that she can't run on air. • Running isn't flying.