Comments | game_byrd: Bricks in the Wall, Chapter 13: Morality

game_byrd

Bricks in the Wall, Chapter 13: Morality

Mar 26, 2012 19:43

Title: Morality
Characters: Peter, Sylar
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Words: 430
Summary: "Only Peter could see a murder spree as a quest for salvation."
Notes: Inspired by .com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_?

( Peter and Sylar talk while Sylar works on a clock )

bricks, sylar, rated g, !fandom: heroes, peter

Comments 10

photoash March 27 2012, 01:59:55 UTC

I really liked this and all it's implications :) It was nice to see Peter be profound.

game_byrd March 27 2012, 02:14:08 UTC

I like to think that Peter has pondered greatly on the meaning of abilities and "power", especially given the dream in season 1 where he was asleep in the Odessa holding cell and a figment of Sylar asked him, "How can you stop what's coming, when you don't know anything about power?"

He might not be as blindingly sharp as Sylar, but he's got some thoughts on a few things.

Glad you liked it!

dancingdragon3 March 27 2012, 19:49:15 UTC

"Morality … is framed … by those with power."

Sylar smiled slowly. He wouldn't have put it that way, precisely, but yes, that was his point. "Exactly."

Peter pondered that for a few more moments. "I don't agree," he asserted firmly. Sylar shrugged without surprise. Peter's agreement or lack thereof didn't change the world.

"So all those powers you were collecting," Peter went on, "you thought that would make everything all right? You thought that would save your soul?"Woah. This is reaallly thought provoking. So much so I had to open a pages doc to formulate my response ( ... )

game_byrd March 28 2012, 00:40:22 UTC

Yay! Thought-provoking double-yay!

Are you saying that Sylar’s quest for power was a quest for perfection, which equals spiritual perfection and salvation? Or that Sylar thought he was on a mission from god, and that being successful meant it was true? And if he was really successful then he really was doing god’s work? Or did you mean something completely different? I think Sylar initially thought that he was fated/destined/meant to have powers, to be powerful, and to rise above everyone else. It was an evolutionary imperative. I think he initially thought that denying it was like the lion declining to kill - just a bit silly in a natural ecosystem. So initially, I think that's what Sylar was thinking ( ... )

kemokage March 28 2012, 04:13:20 UTC

Sylar's preaching some fine Nietzsche there, which is totally believable for Sylar and I would think he would have come up with some philosophy to justify himself and help him to embrace the Hunger or else he would have completely insane (instead of only slightly). Problem with Nietzsche though is that his logic's full of holes and I can think of no one better than Peter to poke them out.

game_byrd March 28 2012, 04:15:55 UTC

Yeah, Peter - not that persuaded by self-justifying philosophy. :)

lornrocks March 28 2012, 10:31:39 UTC

Oh, wow. Looks like Peter got that quick.

game_byrd March 28 2012, 13:14:58 UTC

:D

He's not always slow!

x_x_igorina_x_x April 1 2012, 15:03:36 UTC

That was extremely thought provoking for a drabble of less than 500 words.

Very interesting. I liked how profound Peter was there at the end and how shocked Sylar was.

game_byrd April 1 2012, 15:23:23 UTC

Sylar likes to think of himself as better than everyone and operating on this refined, different plane from them. And maybe he does. But that plane often intersects with others, and there's nothing about his special existence that renders the existence of others 'unspecial'. What Sylar wants is not so inhuman and different that Peter can't understand it. It's just immature, in Peter's opinion.