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Defending Peter's inept handling of his powers

1. Twisted Mr Brown
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   I've been a fan of the show since just before Season 2 started when the DVD collection of Season 1 was released.  I'm loving it, even with everyone bashing on supposed plot holes and bad scripting.  While I can't account for bad acting or botched dialogue, I can usually find a suitable defense to most of these things so I thought I'd bring one of the bigger ones up here.

    

   One of the things that really seems to be bugging people is Peter Petrelli's apparent ineptitude of using his powers effectively.  Most people I've talked to are INCREDIBLY frusterated by this, but I'm not, and here's why.  Peter is an emotional mess who's head has always been in the clouds and his feet have never really touched the ground since he was first introduced.  The only character worse than Peter is this way is Hiro.  Peter is not trained to be a quick thinking action oriented sort of person.  Before he discovered he had these powers at all he was a freakin hospice nurse!  All he did was take care of old people on their death beds.  I don't know where everyone expects him to get all these tactical expertise and be a bad ass all of a sudden just because he has these powers.  I mean, there is a REASON why Noah Bennet (HRG) has been so successful bring in these super powered people and locking them up in Level 5, and it's not JUST the whole "One of us, One of them" having the Haitian with him gimmick.  Noah is TRAINED to combat and deal with super powered people.  Peter, on the other hand, is just barely above the level of a kitten as far as combat goes.  GIVEN he is a closer to the cub of a saber tooth tiger with the advantage of all his powers, but he is still wet behind the ears.  Or "green" if you prefer.

    

   I, for one, don't expect Peter to be ANY sort of bad ass AT ALL.  He was merely a hero through circumstance.  It's not like he's got a lifetime of training in using these powers and can call up the proper power for whatever situation he finds himself in.  And, to top it of, he's got an ASS LOAD of powers!  Combine that with no training, and how the hell does ANYONE expect him to be able keep all this stuff in order?  Especially with the break neck clip at which he's been accumulating them?  I personally think Peter's character is very well written, I just wish Milo was a bit better of an actor :P

    

   This explaination is the same one that makes me fine with Hiro's characters ridiculous uselessness sometimes too.  He simply is not trained to be prepared for the situations he is putting himself in while trying to "save the world".  There's a few other reasons behind why Hiro doesn't fully exercise his ability that relate more to his personality in my mind, but this isn't the place for it.  I'll talk about it some other time.

    

   Anyways, hope this helps anyone that was frusterated with Peter.  It makes sense to me.  I think alot of times people watch these characters and when the character does something they disagree with they say "Well, I wouldn't have done that, that was stupid..."  and completely forget the personality of that character and the context of the situation and how they inform said character's reactions.

    

   Both Peter and Hiro are incredibly emotional characters, so you should EXPECT them to make mistakes.

   Posted 10/14/2008 5:44:06 PM #

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