My Heroes archive binge: a retrospective
Sep. 26th, 2009 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
majutsukaiSo Taylor got me hooked on Heroes and I've spent the past week catching up on all three seasons (goddamn you). I just finished watching the most recent episode last night, and now I'm ready to opine about it on my journal.
I shouldn't have to say that there are probably spoilers in this.
A casual glance at the Heroes page on TvTropes tells me that seasons 2 and 3 are... not very well-liked among fans. To put it lightly. Additionally, I've seen at least one secret on fandomsecrets where the OP said that they stopped watching in the middle of season 2 for ~*~*~Obvious Reasons~*~*~. And many others that shared similar sentiments.
Let me be frank. That elicited an eyeroll from me before I'd watched the seasons in question, and it continues to do so after I've watched them.
Don't misunderstand. The show wasn't flawless. With the utter deletion of Caitlyn from the timeline, Sylar's aborted character development in season 3, the very ill-conceived manner in which they killed off Adam, the writers'... relatively brutal treatment of Peter (more on that later), characters conveniently forgetting that they can literally bring back the dead with an infusion of Claire's blood, the writers' very very loose understanding of evolution, the show's haphazard treatment of the mechanics of time travel (don't get me started), its tendency to introduce tons of likable characters before throwing them away like used tissue, and if the fuckers kill off Hiro like it looks like they're trying to then I will personally gut them... Yeah, the show had its problems.
Still, it was a hell of a ride, and I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a show so much. A lot of the dramatic scenes had my heart racing. I've definitely grown attached to most of the characters. I found all of the plot arcs to be interesting and engaging. And the scene where Claire scattered what she thought were her father's ashes was one of maybe four scenes in the history of all the fiction that I have ever seen or read that has actually made me cry. And that was in the perennially hated Season 2.
It genuinely surprised me to learn that characters like Maya, Alejandro, West, Claire, and for the love of god, Hiro and Peter, had such a large hatedom. I've no particular opinion either way on Maya and Alejandro... Hiro's attitudes about heroism sometimes make my eyes roll, but don't ultimately affect my judgment of him as a character... and I admit that I have a certain bias in not disliking West, but... meh. As for the others...
...Okay, I'm about to say a few things that could very well get me hated by Heroes fans.
First, Peter and Claire are my favorite characters. And yes, I said Claire.
Claire frankly surprised me. Going in, I expected-- from the way a lot of people were talking about her-- that she would wind up being a dislikable character. But really? All it took for me to know that probably wasn't the case was watching the first episode. Throughout my entire time watching the series, I kept watching for the moment when she was supposed to stop being likable, but it never happened.
She caught a lot of crap for "wangsting" in season 3. Never mind the fact that she was "wangsting" over the fact that she had lost the ability to feel pain, which I know I would find pretty damn scary. And she got over it pretty damn quick, and took a level in badass in the process-- getting more than a few crowning moments of awesome. Though given fandom's apparently very loose definition of "wangst", they could very well have been referring to her in season 2 as well. Fuck if I know. I just didn't see any reason to dislike her.
As for Peter... where, oh where, do I start.
I started liking Peter a few scenes in to the first episode, and this was before even knowing his name or that he was going to be such a central character. In fact, he seemed at the time like he was going to be a side character or something-- though given that it was the first episode, where they have to introduce all of the plot-important characters, it kind of made everyone look like side characters. Anyways, the long and short of it is, Peter being one of (if not the) most prominent character(s) didn't factor at all into me liking him. In fact, I found myself silently cursing myself when I found out that he was-- it just seems too damn obvious, y'know? I hate liking the main character the best.
I did a lot of thinking about it, and I realized what it was that made me like him. He's kind, he's compassionate, he tries to understand people, and more importantly, he does his damnedest to see the good in people before the bad. Basically... he's the person I try to be every day. In those first few episodes, Peter was basically a physical embodiment of the golden standard to which I hold myself.
This is a very rare character type in fiction. Most of the time you see characters that have very sharply-defined lines between who they love, who they hate, and who they don't give a shit about. Maybe it makes characters more relatable? Hell if I know. All I know is that I was never able to think that way, and it was refreshing to see a character who saw things the same way.
I had high hopes that maybe, just maybe, Peter wouldn't wind up being punished for his trust in other people. Just once I would like to see a story in which optimism is not a character flaw. Maybe it's because I'd like to feel justified in having it myself. So you can imagine, of course, my disappointment when the show started to slowly, steadily, and painfully grind that optimism out of him.
Don't get me wrong; I don't expect Peter to be some sort of saint who Sees The Truth and brings the good out of people by sheer virtue of his pure, untainted, and innocent white glow. I wouldn't want that either; I know there have been a few times when my own optimism has hurt me, and I would expect the same of a character like Peter. However, I don't think I saw his optimism pay off even once in the entire course of the show. Instead, his reasons to trust people and forgive their flaws were steadily excised, one by one, like tumors. The scene where Peter proclaimed "I'll never forgive you!" to a Sylar that, at the time, actually looked like he could be redeemed (dur hur, more on that later) was genuinely painful to me.
He's gotten a bit better, though, and after Noah actually pointed out the fact that he's no longer letting people get close to him (thus implying that the writers are now willing to view this as a flaw), I have some hope that he might eventually get that optimism back. We'll see, I guess.
And finally... perhaps the greatest fandom sin I could possibly commit... Sylar.
Oh, Sylar.
Apparently, Sylar was supposed to have been killed off for real after the Season 1 finale, but was brought back due to his popularity.
Now... I might actually understand this, if he were to get any character development that was actually worth anything. Instead, however, he's been the irredeemable psycho killer time and time again, and I frankly don't find that to be a very endearing trait.
The one time that I liked Sylar was during the Season 3 arc where it looked like he might get some sort of redemption. The whole thing with Elle, his ability for empathy, his getting over the insatiable need to kill... what happened to all that, writers?
It was promptly abandoned, presumably because a Sylar that is not a psycho killer is no Sylar at all. I can only roll my eyes and hope they're going somewhere with this. Meanwhile, Sylar annoys me. I realize that it isn't a popular opinion, but so it stands.
Oh, and about the time travel thing? Seriously, don't get me started. I have a long history of writing and reading things that involve time travel, and I know the common mistakes to look for. Heroes made a few of them. Still, the time travel served its purpose in the plot, so I guess it's not worth much more than a momentary eyetwitch on my part. It would just be nice if they were consistent.
And... I think I'm out of steam at this point. That's all I've really got. Overall, I liked it. Maybe it says a lot about me that I can find so much negative and still come out with such a roundly positive opinion of the show... meh. You be the judge of that.
I shouldn't have to say that there are probably spoilers in this.
A casual glance at the Heroes page on TvTropes tells me that seasons 2 and 3 are... not very well-liked among fans. To put it lightly. Additionally, I've seen at least one secret on fandomsecrets where the OP said that they stopped watching in the middle of season 2 for ~*~*~Obvious Reasons~*~*~. And many others that shared similar sentiments.
Let me be frank. That elicited an eyeroll from me before I'd watched the seasons in question, and it continues to do so after I've watched them.
Don't misunderstand. The show wasn't flawless. With the utter deletion of Caitlyn from the timeline, Sylar's aborted character development in season 3, the very ill-conceived manner in which they killed off Adam, the writers'... relatively brutal treatment of Peter (more on that later), characters conveniently forgetting that they can literally bring back the dead with an infusion of Claire's blood, the writers' very very loose understanding of evolution, the show's haphazard treatment of the mechanics of time travel (don't get me started), its tendency to introduce tons of likable characters before throwing them away like used tissue, and if the fuckers kill off Hiro like it looks like they're trying to then I will personally gut them... Yeah, the show had its problems.
Still, it was a hell of a ride, and I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a show so much. A lot of the dramatic scenes had my heart racing. I've definitely grown attached to most of the characters. I found all of the plot arcs to be interesting and engaging. And the scene where Claire scattered what she thought were her father's ashes was one of maybe four scenes in the history of all the fiction that I have ever seen or read that has actually made me cry. And that was in the perennially hated Season 2.
It genuinely surprised me to learn that characters like Maya, Alejandro, West, Claire, and for the love of god, Hiro and Peter, had such a large hatedom. I've no particular opinion either way on Maya and Alejandro... Hiro's attitudes about heroism sometimes make my eyes roll, but don't ultimately affect my judgment of him as a character... and I admit that I have a certain bias in not disliking West, but... meh. As for the others...
...Okay, I'm about to say a few things that could very well get me hated by Heroes fans.
First, Peter and Claire are my favorite characters. And yes, I said Claire.
Claire frankly surprised me. Going in, I expected-- from the way a lot of people were talking about her-- that she would wind up being a dislikable character. But really? All it took for me to know that probably wasn't the case was watching the first episode. Throughout my entire time watching the series, I kept watching for the moment when she was supposed to stop being likable, but it never happened.
She caught a lot of crap for "wangsting" in season 3. Never mind the fact that she was "wangsting" over the fact that she had lost the ability to feel pain, which I know I would find pretty damn scary. And she got over it pretty damn quick, and took a level in badass in the process-- getting more than a few crowning moments of awesome. Though given fandom's apparently very loose definition of "wangst", they could very well have been referring to her in season 2 as well. Fuck if I know. I just didn't see any reason to dislike her.
As for Peter... where, oh where, do I start.
I started liking Peter a few scenes in to the first episode, and this was before even knowing his name or that he was going to be such a central character. In fact, he seemed at the time like he was going to be a side character or something-- though given that it was the first episode, where they have to introduce all of the plot-important characters, it kind of made everyone look like side characters. Anyways, the long and short of it is, Peter being one of (if not the) most prominent character(s) didn't factor at all into me liking him. In fact, I found myself silently cursing myself when I found out that he was-- it just seems too damn obvious, y'know? I hate liking the main character the best.
I did a lot of thinking about it, and I realized what it was that made me like him. He's kind, he's compassionate, he tries to understand people, and more importantly, he does his damnedest to see the good in people before the bad. Basically... he's the person I try to be every day. In those first few episodes, Peter was basically a physical embodiment of the golden standard to which I hold myself.
This is a very rare character type in fiction. Most of the time you see characters that have very sharply-defined lines between who they love, who they hate, and who they don't give a shit about. Maybe it makes characters more relatable? Hell if I know. All I know is that I was never able to think that way, and it was refreshing to see a character who saw things the same way.
I had high hopes that maybe, just maybe, Peter wouldn't wind up being punished for his trust in other people. Just once I would like to see a story in which optimism is not a character flaw. Maybe it's because I'd like to feel justified in having it myself. So you can imagine, of course, my disappointment when the show started to slowly, steadily, and painfully grind that optimism out of him.
Don't get me wrong; I don't expect Peter to be some sort of saint who Sees The Truth and brings the good out of people by sheer virtue of his pure, untainted, and innocent white glow. I wouldn't want that either; I know there have been a few times when my own optimism has hurt me, and I would expect the same of a character like Peter. However, I don't think I saw his optimism pay off even once in the entire course of the show. Instead, his reasons to trust people and forgive their flaws were steadily excised, one by one, like tumors. The scene where Peter proclaimed "I'll never forgive you!" to a Sylar that, at the time, actually looked like he could be redeemed (dur hur, more on that later) was genuinely painful to me.
He's gotten a bit better, though, and after Noah actually pointed out the fact that he's no longer letting people get close to him (thus implying that the writers are now willing to view this as a flaw), I have some hope that he might eventually get that optimism back. We'll see, I guess.
And finally... perhaps the greatest fandom sin I could possibly commit... Sylar.
Oh, Sylar.
Apparently, Sylar was supposed to have been killed off for real after the Season 1 finale, but was brought back due to his popularity.
Now... I might actually understand this, if he were to get any character development that was actually worth anything. Instead, however, he's been the irredeemable psycho killer time and time again, and I frankly don't find that to be a very endearing trait.
The one time that I liked Sylar was during the Season 3 arc where it looked like he might get some sort of redemption. The whole thing with Elle, his ability for empathy, his getting over the insatiable need to kill... what happened to all that, writers?
It was promptly abandoned, presumably because a Sylar that is not a psycho killer is no Sylar at all. I can only roll my eyes and hope they're going somewhere with this. Meanwhile, Sylar annoys me. I realize that it isn't a popular opinion, but so it stands.
Oh, and about the time travel thing? Seriously, don't get me started. I have a long history of writing and reading things that involve time travel, and I know the common mistakes to look for. Heroes made a few of them. Still, the time travel served its purpose in the plot, so I guess it's not worth much more than a momentary eyetwitch on my part. It would just be nice if they were consistent.
And... I think I'm out of steam at this point. That's all I've really got. Overall, I liked it. Maybe it says a lot about me that I can find so much negative and still come out with such a roundly positive opinion of the show... meh. You be the judge of that.
