In season 1, I kept on wondering whether there's a genetic "affinity" to a specific ability. Like for instance, I was thinking how a fire-wielder and a flying-ability could wield someone with spontaneous regeneration. Halfway through the series, I thought that this doesn't play a part in anything and that the only notion you have to take into consideration is when your parents are "heroes", you'd most likely end up being a "hero" yourself.

But in the season finale, Linderman said something like he orchestrated the whole event of Niki meeting up with D.L. so that they'd get Micah for a son, so, I'm taking it as an "unofficial statement" it is possible to predict the probability of an ability surfacing from the union of two genes coming from a specific person w/ a certain ability.

That being said, I am curious about the role of bloodlines in this season of heroes and how this will explain how West and Nathan have similar abilities. I don't think they'd go down the road as near-relatives, as it would put West's romance with Claire in jeopardy but them being distinct relatives would do. I am also curious about the Nakamuras being the "wind behind time's back".

I've wondered about the same thing.. i also wonder about the scope and limits of 'hero' abilities. I mean.... man I don't know how to explain.. are the abilities just ANYTHING that is not humanly possible? Hiro's is by far the most advanced with the ability to bend space/time rather than just physics and psychokinetics.

If its just 'anything'.. then it wouldn't be possible to rule out the ability/power of being God. (Galactus/Ellimist/Crayak anyone?)

I always thought of the source of the powers to be some kind of 'X-gene' and having this 'X-gene' would result in some random superpower. I don't think you could actually 'generate' a particular power by pairing two specific parents together.

Hiro doesn't seem to bend time and space, I'd say he's the one bending around it. As in, the world hasn't slowed down, he's just going faster. Thats what I think anyways.

Hmm this also makes me wonder exactly what Mohinder meant when he said the heroes are neccesary to overcome stuff like global warming etc. Also, if they are the next evolution, does that mean everyone will have the powers eventually? All normal people dying out? If that happens, since all the powers seem random, with a lot of dangerous ones, the world will surely fall into anarchy

i think so too, but i'm sure that the flying boy is not related to nathan

I really doubt that someone could decide what a power is going to be just from orchestrating the meeting of the parents.

yeah it just sounds way too easy, other wise, they'd be breeding people left right and centre just to get the power they want.

I thought the powers were random..

Fly + Fire = Heal
Phase + double personality = Talk to technology?

looks to be random

hello, the double personality of Jessica isn't a power, her power is super strengh, th edouble personality is a mental problem...

lol, but still he's right. the powers are kind of random.

mental problem?

explain the tattoo on her back whenever Jessica is in control?

FacJoe/RYP: WOW! Incredibly interesting theory. Thanks for sharing!



Phase + Super Strength = Control of Technology******

Could be. It would be cool that way, though... when you mix yellow and blue, which are opposites, you get green...

well
this is just an observation but dont you find it strange that
the characters get the powers
that represent themselfs the most?
for example peter just wants to please everyone = gets everyone elses power
sylar want to be special AND he is a watch fixers son and can "see how things tick"
another example would be
Nikki as she wants to be strong for her son = super strength

anyone esle see where im going with this?

i think that those with powers arent geneticall passed down
but more
what they desire most
and the power manifests itself in that form

Or it could be the other way around though, that the powers shape the character of the hero? For instance, Sylar was really good with clocks becuase he has the innate power to understand how things work.

Well , we do know linderman orchestrated niki/jessica and DL meeting, and we know they needed micah to complete their plan for nathan to be president (Rigging votes). We also know that the powers come from genes, but we dont know how the genes arose. it is possible the genes are given to the people, but how do you exlpain the first generation of heroes? Unless there was another group before them, but they didnt have the technology to do that sort of procedure.

IMO it has to be a random process, or like what Moogle said....DL was the "Safe cracker" So he "Gets into things" *phase shifting* Maybe the gene is able to mutate into whatever the person with it wants?

Hmmmmmmmmm maybe we will find out tonight

I think the makers started out without any thought about bloodlines but then towards the end of season 1 they thought about it and decided to put something about bloodlines in season 2. So i think we'l be seeing something like that soon.

lol
thats a good idea dark chris
makes sense
i mean it did feel kind of ... random

jinggoy has a point too
it could be either way around really
i think there is too clear a link between the characters personalities and thier powers
to be ignored
definatley a link going on there

i mean its too coincidential that candice the girl who said she is "fat"
but hates herself for it or more other people for how they treat her
gets the ability to conceal it
i mean there are loads more of examples
it just cant be a coincidence

[quote name='FacJoe' date='Oct 1 2007, 06:47 AM' post='43236']
In season 1, I kept on wondering whether there's a genetic "affinity" to a specific ability. Like for instance, I was thinking how a fire-wielder and a flying-ability could wield someone with spontaneous regeneration.

I think you'd have to be Claire to surivive in a fire lady for nine months. Though I can't explain why Nikki and DL would produce a technopath

That made me laugh!

I think that the abilities are randomly chosen. If you think about it, heroes is just a tv show so you can't look too far into it.

However, I do like the idea that the powers maifest themselves on the heroe's personality.

I think that West's power is more 'Wind Manipulation' or weather control, rather than flight, like nathan. West seems to glide, and swoop, whereas Nathan sort of rockets. Get me?

West reminded me of how Peter Pan flies in the cartoon (don't laugh), and you're right. Nathan rushes into the air. Perhaps West has the power of floatation/hovering etc. Something like that.

yh like how can someone from one family have dual personality and her son have the fixing things ability?

Sure it looks like you can take two people with powers and they can have a kid that will most probably have powers, but it doesn't seem like what powers the parents have affect what the child can do. Fire creation/manipulation + flight = regeneration? Super strength + intangibility = control electronics? Doesn't make sense.

Bloodlines? Like a decendant of someone could have the same power? It sorta makes sense genetically.

Maybe that would work with Nathan too... He can fly and somehow he has never actually been "free": always pleasing her mother and father, doing whatever they expected him to do..., I can´t think of any other state of more freedom than when "flying", nothing can reach you ...

he probably researched a lil genetics and figured out it would make micah's technology power

...what exactly is the code for "I can talk to robots"? GTTC? GAGATCCAC?

Mohinder stated that there were 4 genetic markers identifying all Heroes. And, if we suspend disbelief and try to follow this along the route of actual genetics, that probably means those 4 markers activate a whole host of other "sleeper" genes buried within the normal human genome which remain dormant in mundanes but are activated in superhumans. The exact nature of the power developed depends on the individual's overall genetic make-up and these hundreds of sleeper genes and is an expression of those genes.

But really. What protein sequence codes for "bend time and space", again?

I think the powers a hero may manifest is random, maybe Linderman had someone who has the power to predict what power a person may develop

It definitely has to do with genetics! mixing diferent mutations in the gene would produce a differently distinct super ability!

Claire is his Wendy?

He's missing his green tights..

More likely, Lindermann had simply had a long-term plan of encouraging powered people to get together in the hope of increasing the chance of powered offspring. I'd say Micah's power being useful to him was just a bonus in this case.

Oh, and remember, using Micah's power was only every Plan B for Lindermann. He'd originally planned to get Nathan across the line through the time-honoured combination of a PR blitz and plentiful bribery.

That sounds a lot like the X-men philosophy, that people are born with "mutant' genes.

its either than linderman is really clever and actually knows how genes work in different people or he just got lucky.
i think its completly random though.

there's maybe more suprise through out the season...who knows..linderman will be back!!!

My first opinion was that the powers are random even if two "super" parents have a child, but I really do like the idea that their powers might be shaped by their characters, because it just adds that little bit of dimension to the characters. However, as someone has said, it is also possible that their characters are shaped round their power. I think some belong to the first category, and some to the second. Well, the heroes are human after all, just as there is no (socially-constructed) category for all of us, the heroes don't fit nicely into one category either

That is an interesting question and one that I am sure will come up again and again this season. Remember in last season when Sylar (Gabrielle's) mother kept saying that he is special? That was repeated over and over until he accidently killed her. Now, Chandra Suresh had found Sylar and new he was a vital link in finding out about the genetics of heroes. If bloodlines are important as this years volume suggests, wouldn't it be interesting to find out who Sylar's father was? Maybe Sylar's father was the one who killed Kaito.

If that is so, maybe he is the one that went astray. I hope these are questions that can be answered as the season goes on.

I totally agree... I don't think Linderman could have predicted that Niki and DL's child would be able to control machines, which would eventually allow him to influence the election in Nathan's favour.
I also like the idea of people being shaped by their abilities and vice-versa... Perhaps it's not the real scientific explanation, but the parallels that can be drawn between the character's personalities and their powers can really give some insight.
And yes, I'm still wondering about that "patient zero" thing... When Chandra Suresh tested Gabriel Gray, he didn't find anything until Gabriel absorbed telekinesis from someone else. And similarly, in the Primatech Paper Company, the scientists only found evidence of telekinesis in him.
So, did he really have a power before killing the telekinetic Hero ? (in which case his power would not be as obvious to identify as others) Or was his ability to see how things work a simple human feature, that he used in order to steal powers ?

But is that what the Company is doing? We haven't seen a great deal of the companies involvment yet.

Hmm ... I'm sure the company will have a major role in this season ... after all, Noah and Mohinder were infiltrating it ...

The funny thing is that I had that same exact thought