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joiedecombatIt took me a while, but I am finally officially on the Heroes love train, and after yesterday's episode (1.17, "Company Man") I am dying to see where the series goes next. In retrospect, I am not sure what took me so long. Burned by Lost catching the stupid, perhaps.
But oh, wow, last night's episode was some great TV - not just because of investment in the characters after sixteen episodes, either. The structure and pacing of the episode was great, and unlike some other, similar TV series (LOST), they actually delivered the payoff they promised on several plot threads which have been building over the course of the season. Stuff happened, and some questions were answered while other questions were raised, the status quo for several characters was decidedly changed, and I can't wait to see what happens next. That's good TV, y'all.
So, I have a new fandom, and we all know what that means: tl;dr meta!
Personal favorite thus far: Nathan. What is it with me and the assholes, guys?
In fairness, Nathan's only an asshole on the outside; on the inside, he's one big squishy marshmallow, and I love him for it. He's distinctly a grey area so far, not a bad person, but at least as much of an antagonist as a protagonist because he's so strongly against the things that are happening to and around him as a result of all this super-powered nonsense. And I can't really blame him for being against it, because he's got a lot to lose... which doesn't excuse being a jerk, but being a jerk makes him interesting to watch, and he's not so much of a jerk that he's not still likeable, especially not when he goes around being nice to Hiro and secretly trying not to wibble over having a long-lost daughter and flying cross-country in nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms. (Hot.)
Other favorites: Hiro and Claire. Neither of these require much explanation; Hiro is adorkable, Claire is kick-ass, and they're both made of awesome. Both of them, like Nathan, provide a believable depiction of how someone might react to suddenly having superpowers: Hiro, a bona fide geek living a pretty humdrum life, is thrilled, and approaches the whole thing by the rules we all know from comics and other works of fiction. Claire, meanwhile, is horribly confused and just desperate to know she's not the only one. And it's great.
(That said: holy hell, Powers That Be, just because Hiro is a fan favorite and made of awesome does not mean that he has to be in every episode. His storyline has been awfully pastede on yey recently, and I'm really hoping that finally getting that sword next episode will get the boy back to doing actual interesting stuff.)
Also: Matt and Mohinder, purely because both of these poor guys have been getting the shaft, writing-wise. Matt in particular has been stuck in boring storylines and has only just gotten a chance to prove that it's the storylines, not the character, which suck; I'm proud of the character's role in Company Man. Here's hoping that the events of the episode leave him in a position to have more interesting stuff to do.
As for Mohinder, he really seemed like he was going to be the one to bring the heroes together, only to kind of miss the boat on that in favor of, again, boring subplots. And now most of the fandom hates him for not knowing as much as the audience knows about Sylar, which really seems unfair.
I kinda wanna hug them both.
Not feeling the fandom love: Peter. I seem to be in something of a minority in the fanbase; I really don't have a whole lot of interest in Peter as compared to the other characters in the series. I don't actively dislike him much, but realy the only thing that gave him much appeal for me was the fact that he, along with Hiro, was one of the very few characters in the series who embraced the idea of having super powers and being a hero. That's fallen by the wayside a bit following his "exploding man" vision, what with his efforts to learn how to control his power, which has really interested me only insofar as I find Claude's method of "teaching" him kind of amusing. On the other hand, he's shaping up to be vastly overpowered compared to basically everyone else in the series except for Sylar, and I don't like the idea of Peter being the only character equipped to defeat Sylar, given that the title of the show is Heroes and not Hero.
Also in the 'not feeling the fan-love' boat for me is Sylar, who is really too mustache-twirling, puppy-kicking, he-can-smell-your-spicy-brains crazy evil to actually interest me as anything more than an obstacle for the heroes to face. Although in that capacity he works pretty well, and I'll be satisfied when he gets his comeuppance.
The rest of the major characters fall more or less into the "meh" category. I liked Niki more in concept than I've been liking her in execution; her showdown with Matt was cool, but those are about the only thoughts I have on her at the moment. Ditto Isaac. Ditto Simone. I enjoy watching Claude, but I haven't built up much personal interest in him yet, he's just kind of fun to watch. (See again: me and the assholes.)
Mr. Bennet, however, is pretty awesome, in something of the same way the Mayor in Buffy was awesome, only with the added bonus of being morally grey-shading-towards-bad-guy with the saving grace of being totally committed to protecting his family, instead of self-admittedly balls-out evil. He's also a great character on a more objective level because he invariably makes things more interesting, always a good thing.
Ships: none, really. I find I don't ship a lot outside of canon ships, and I'm not sure why that is, but in this case it probably doesn't help that the only one of the female characters I really like (aside from Charlie, who, well) is Claire, and she's too young to ship with any of the other major characters anyway.
Not that that necessarily stops anyone, but though Peter and Claire undeniably had a lot of chemistry, I didn't read it as romantic chemistry, and pairing them makes me uncomfy in the same way that Sesshoumaru/Rin or movieverse Logan/Rogue makes me uncomfy; she's emotionally vulnerable and she hero-worships him, and that plus his immaturity plus the age difference just seems, to me, to be a kind of icky foundation upon which to build a romance.
Nathan/Peter I also do not feel, although with that one I can at least see where it comes from; I'm pretty sure Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia bring the HoYay on purpose.
Mostly I'm just a lot more interested in the non-romantic interactions between the characters. I'm especially looking forward to the Petrelli family reunion that's bound to be coming up sooner or later, in which Claire and Nathan and Peter all find out just how interconnected they are. That should be fun to watch!
But oh, wow, last night's episode was some great TV - not just because of investment in the characters after sixteen episodes, either. The structure and pacing of the episode was great, and unlike some other, similar TV series (LOST), they actually delivered the payoff they promised on several plot threads which have been building over the course of the season. Stuff happened, and some questions were answered while other questions were raised, the status quo for several characters was decidedly changed, and I can't wait to see what happens next. That's good TV, y'all.
So, I have a new fandom, and we all know what that means: tl;dr meta!
Personal favorite thus far: Nathan. What is it with me and the assholes, guys?
In fairness, Nathan's only an asshole on the outside; on the inside, he's one big squishy marshmallow, and I love him for it. He's distinctly a grey area so far, not a bad person, but at least as much of an antagonist as a protagonist because he's so strongly against the things that are happening to and around him as a result of all this super-powered nonsense. And I can't really blame him for being against it, because he's got a lot to lose... which doesn't excuse being a jerk, but being a jerk makes him interesting to watch, and he's not so much of a jerk that he's not still likeable, especially not when he goes around being nice to Hiro and secretly trying not to wibble over having a long-lost daughter and flying cross-country in nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms. (Hot.)
Other favorites: Hiro and Claire. Neither of these require much explanation; Hiro is adorkable, Claire is kick-ass, and they're both made of awesome. Both of them, like Nathan, provide a believable depiction of how someone might react to suddenly having superpowers: Hiro, a bona fide geek living a pretty humdrum life, is thrilled, and approaches the whole thing by the rules we all know from comics and other works of fiction. Claire, meanwhile, is horribly confused and just desperate to know she's not the only one. And it's great.
(That said: holy hell, Powers That Be, just because Hiro is a fan favorite and made of awesome does not mean that he has to be in every episode. His storyline has been awfully pastede on yey recently, and I'm really hoping that finally getting that sword next episode will get the boy back to doing actual interesting stuff.)
Also: Matt and Mohinder, purely because both of these poor guys have been getting the shaft, writing-wise. Matt in particular has been stuck in boring storylines and has only just gotten a chance to prove that it's the storylines, not the character, which suck; I'm proud of the character's role in Company Man. Here's hoping that the events of the episode leave him in a position to have more interesting stuff to do.
As for Mohinder, he really seemed like he was going to be the one to bring the heroes together, only to kind of miss the boat on that in favor of, again, boring subplots. And now most of the fandom hates him for not knowing as much as the audience knows about Sylar, which really seems unfair.
I kinda wanna hug them both.
Not feeling the fandom love: Peter. I seem to be in something of a minority in the fanbase; I really don't have a whole lot of interest in Peter as compared to the other characters in the series. I don't actively dislike him much, but realy the only thing that gave him much appeal for me was the fact that he, along with Hiro, was one of the very few characters in the series who embraced the idea of having super powers and being a hero. That's fallen by the wayside a bit following his "exploding man" vision, what with his efforts to learn how to control his power, which has really interested me only insofar as I find Claude's method of "teaching" him kind of amusing. On the other hand, he's shaping up to be vastly overpowered compared to basically everyone else in the series except for Sylar, and I don't like the idea of Peter being the only character equipped to defeat Sylar, given that the title of the show is Heroes and not Hero.
Also in the 'not feeling the fan-love' boat for me is Sylar, who is really too mustache-twirling, puppy-kicking, he-can-smell-your-spicy-brains crazy evil to actually interest me as anything more than an obstacle for the heroes to face. Although in that capacity he works pretty well, and I'll be satisfied when he gets his comeuppance.
The rest of the major characters fall more or less into the "meh" category. I liked Niki more in concept than I've been liking her in execution; her showdown with Matt was cool, but those are about the only thoughts I have on her at the moment. Ditto Isaac. Ditto Simone. I enjoy watching Claude, but I haven't built up much personal interest in him yet, he's just kind of fun to watch. (See again: me and the assholes.)
Mr. Bennet, however, is pretty awesome, in something of the same way the Mayor in Buffy was awesome, only with the added bonus of being morally grey-shading-towards-bad-guy with the saving grace of being totally committed to protecting his family, instead of self-admittedly balls-out evil. He's also a great character on a more objective level because he invariably makes things more interesting, always a good thing.
Ships: none, really. I find I don't ship a lot outside of canon ships, and I'm not sure why that is, but in this case it probably doesn't help that the only one of the female characters I really like (aside from Charlie, who, well) is Claire, and she's too young to ship with any of the other major characters anyway.
Not that that necessarily stops anyone, but though Peter and Claire undeniably had a lot of chemistry, I didn't read it as romantic chemistry, and pairing them makes me uncomfy in the same way that Sesshoumaru/Rin or movieverse Logan/Rogue makes me uncomfy; she's emotionally vulnerable and she hero-worships him, and that plus his immaturity plus the age difference just seems, to me, to be a kind of icky foundation upon which to build a romance.
Nathan/Peter I also do not feel, although with that one I can at least see where it comes from; I'm pretty sure Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia bring the HoYay on purpose.
Mostly I'm just a lot more interested in the non-romantic interactions between the characters. I'm especially looking forward to the Petrelli family reunion that's bound to be coming up sooner or later, in which Claire and Nathan and Peter all find out just how interconnected they are. That should be fun to watch!
