Question: I don't get it. How can an eclipse stop evolved humans from accessing their abilities?
One of Us, One of Them - S3-E3
Question: Can't The German use his power to simply rip off the door of the vault instead of opening it via the combination?
Chosen answer: The German's powers could be limited in ways of heaviness of the metal he is manipulating. Meaning the door could be too heavy for him to rip off.
How to Stop an Exploding Man - S1-E23
Question: How was Peter able to communicate with Charles Deveaux even though he's been dead for some time?
Chosen answer: Charles Deveaux had super powers. It could very well be his powers made it possible for Peter to communicate with him.
Question: What's Arthur Petrelli's motivation for wanting to create a formula that gives people powers?
Chosen answer: He feels that powered people are superior to normal humans (much like Magneto from the X-Men franchises) but is aware that the powered people are still a tiny minority and thus are easy to persecute. He also has a similar hunger for powers like Sylar - the more people who have powers, the more there are for him to take.
Question: How exactly does Arthur Petrelli's ability of Power absorption work? How does he take powers and integrate them? Is there any chance of returning the stolen power/s to the original recipient? Also, after he absorbs an ability, what affect does it have on the person who's had their ability absorbed? Does the original recipient have any chance of regaining his/her original power?
Chosen answer: No explanation is ever given as to precisely how the process works. The subject is rendered powerless. If Arthur had the ability to return the ability if he wished to, it's certainly not shown in the show and it seems unlikely that he would have been interested in doing so. Later events suggest that the stolen power is not actually completely gone, as Peter Petrelli was able to use the power-serum to partially restore his own absorption ability, and Hiro's power is eventually partly revived by the infant Matt Parkman, suggesting that, in both cases, some vestiges of their original ability was still present.
Question: I don't understand why Adam Monroe wanted to release The Shanti Virus? doesn't he realise the just how dangerous it would have been?
Chosen answer: Yes, of course he does. That's the point. He wants to do something to stop humanity going through the same cycle of death and destruction that gets played out every so often. By releasing the Shanti virus, he'll wipe out the vast majority of the human race, dropping the demand for Earth's diminishing resources to a manageable level and allowing the survivors to start over with a relatively clean slate.
Question: Towards the end of the episode but before the climatic battle between Sylar and Peter, Sylar, disguised as Nathan through the power of illusion, walks calmly towards Peter and then reverts back to his own form/image. To my knowledge there are four people who are there to witness this: Peter, Matt Parkman and two unnamed SWAT officers with a battering ram. It is understandable if the two SWAT officers didn't see this transformation, but Matt? Surely he must have seen? He was a few feet from him, yet he didn't even bat an eyelid? Why is this? His superior transformed into a well-known killer.
Chosen answer: Simple, he changes the illusion for peter, but keeps the others thinking he is still Nathan, he can make different illusions at once.
Yeah, but surely when the cameras were on him, and the whole world was watching, what happened? He cast the same illusion to 7 billion people?
Yes. He could drop the illusion for Peter alone whilst everybody else would still see him in his disguise.
Unexpected - S1-E16
Question: Throughout the show, The Haitian has been shown to nullify the powers of evolved humans. Yet, why on the rooftop was he unable to nullify Claude and Peter's invisibility? Doesn't his power work as well as those that require active concentration?
Chosen answer: The Haitian doesn't automatically stop every power around him, he does it at will (eg when he doesn't focus and lets Nathan fly away). by using infra-red goggles they can sneak up on Peter and Claude, whereas forcing them to become visible would have alerted them too soon.
Question: At the end of the episode, Sylar injected himself with a cure to rid himself of the Shanti virus. Upon injecting himself he used his telekinesis to summon a tin can to him. My question is, how was he able to retain his telekinesis when the Shanti virus completely removed all of his acquired powers?
Chosen answer: Sylar is supposed to be able to copy powers through empathic mimicry, as we see him do with Elle's electrical abilities. If he does that, then it appears that the powers genuinely become innate to him, as if they were his from the start, whereas if he takes them in his usual way, they don't - he has access to them, but they don't become innate and thus can be erased by the Shanti virus. When Gabriel killed Brian Davis to take his telekinetic ability, he felt terrible guilt over having done so and thus his empathic mimicry kicked in, making the telekinesis an ability which the Shanti virus couldn't remove. This is also why the Company could only detect his telekinesis when examining him, despite the fact that he possessed many other abilities at the time.
Question: What was Arthur Petrelli doing all that time he was lying in bed hooked to a respirator? Making plans of some sort?
Chosen answer: Basically, yes. Using others to further his agenda and ultimately restore his health and allow him to establish a powerbase.
Question: Does anyone know what the ubiquitous, ever present helix means and what it signifies?
Chosen answer: It is a reference to human DNA. It represents how some people have evolved past what is considered "normal". Hence the name of Chandra Suresh's book: Activating Evolution".
Question: Exactly why did The Company create and experiemnt with a dangerous and life-threatening disease such as The Shanti Virus? Surely they must have known the risks?
Chosen answer: They didn't create it - it first manifested in Shanti Suresh. Their original reason for experimenting on it was probably to find a cure, just as real-world virus labs experiment on highly contagious viruses with that aim in mind. However, the effect of blocking access to powers was clearly of use to the Company in dealing with powered individuals, so their experiments also produced alternative strains of the virus, including the one used on Sylar and Niki Sanders that removed their abilities. These experiments may also have resulted in the ability negation pills given to Peter Petrelli during his time as a "guest" of the Company between seasons one and two. While the risks are obviously considerable, careful security precautions can be set up to guard against accidental release. Somebody insane enough to wish to release one intentionally is, of course, another matter entirely...
Question: How DID Sylar contract The Shanti Virus? Did The Company somehow infect him with it?
Chosen answer: Yes, he was intentionally infected by the Company to remove his powers and make him easier to handle.
Question: Why exactly do The Company want New York City destroyed? Is it so that they can manipulate Nathan into becoming president, ensuring he becomes their puppet?
Chosen answer: Not exactly. Their intent is that the destruction of New York will act as a focus for the entire nation, a rallying point of sorts. The plan is that Nathan will be in a position to show strong leadership after the explosion, giving him a high public profile and a strong support base as the outraged and shocked nation unites behind him. This support could then be used to put him into the White House where he can continue to further their agenda. Not so much a puppet, more a willing ally, but the effect is much the same.
Question: Before contracting The Shanti Virus, just how many powers did Sylar acquire?
Chosen answer: Confirmed powers prior to that point were telekinesis, freezing, kinetic projection, eidetic memory, liquification, enhanced hearing, precognition and radioactivity. There may have been others as well, but those are the definites.
One of Us, One of Them - S3-E3
Question: Why exactly did Angela Petrelli present Bridget Bailey to Sylar? What could Angela possibly gain from Sylar killing and absorbing her power of Clairsentience? Also, why did Bridget just stand there? Surely, working for The Company, she knows who Sylar is?
Chosen answer: Angela intends to turn Sylar into an asset to the company. By allowing him to take Bridget's power, Angela's hoping to create a bond of trust between them. If it doesn't work, then the Company's not lost an agent with an effective combat power, nor have they given Sylar a power that could make him any more dangerous. If it does work, they trade an agent with a minor ability for a new agent of extraordinary power who still has that same ability, so they've lost nothing. As for poor Bridget, yes, she probably does know who Sylar is, but she could hardly anticipate that Angela would bring her, a loyal agent, down to the holding cells to "feed" her to a serial killer. We never see her after Angela says that she's there to feed Sylar - for all we know, she did try to run, but didn't even make it out of the door before Sylar got her.
Unexpected - S1-E16
Question: Is Claude's invisibility limited only to the visible light spectrum? Could he perhaps use it to manipulate say, the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums?
Chosen answer: There's no indication that it applies to anything other than the visible light spectrum.
Question: When Arthur steals Adam's power, why does he crumble to dust?
Chosen answer: Adam is hundreds of years old, and has been kept alive only through his regenerative powers. When that is taken away from him, the years catch up on him, and his body ages so rapidly that he is instantly mummified and crumbles to dust.
Question: Why do the writers and producers of 'Heroes' feel the need to kill such great characters? For example, The German. His power was pretty cool and could have been a major new villain in the third season, but they killed him off. Another would be Elle. Why her? She was such a great character.
Chosen answer: The writers kill off characters as and when it serves the purposes of the overall story for them to die. All characters have some potential to them - just as with real life, not all of them will get to live up to that potential. It sucks when a favourite character is killed off, but that's the nature of a TV show - characters, particularly recurring characters like Elle or minor villains like the German, are going to die on a regular basis.
Chosen answer: As of season three it has not been explained. The characters gained powers after the solar eclipse of the first episode and temporarily lost them during "The Eclipse". It could be some form of cosmological radiation, Hiro and Ando make Superman analogies (who only has special powers because of Earth's yellow sun), Suresh believes it may be coincidental, or it might possibly be related to the catalyst, or it could be influenced by an as yet unseen character.
Sanguis