A case for Nathan's fidelity
A bit of Heroes meta that's been percolating for a while. Spoilers for all of season one.
We see Nathan cheat on his wife in the show, yes. But fanon portrayals of Nathan usually show him as unfaithful to his wife or not really caring about his wife generally. I think there's a case to be made that Nathan sleeping with Niki/Jessica was an isolated incident.
First of all, the show was intentionally showing Nathan as a villain throughout the first season. Multiple times we saw him sell out his family, chose his career over his family, cheat on his wife, lie to Peter, etc.-but we later get explanations that provide extenuating circumstances for all of his actions. The classic example is finding out that Nathan has been building a case against Linderman by acting as a mole for the FBI. In light of that, it makes perfect sense that he be as high-strung and career-obsessed as he is in the beginning of the series-he's got a lot at stake.
The same is true for sleeping with Niki-there are a lot more extenuating circumstances than we are initially led to believe. Look at the facts:
-He does not seek out a liaison; Niki comes on to him.
-He does not try to coerce Niki into sleeping with him and accepts her initial rejection.
-He seems completely uninterested in continuing their relationship or having a mistress. He treats it as a one-time thing.
I, for one, believe Nathan when he tells Peter that he just needed to be with someone who didn't make him feel guilty. His wife is paralyzed. It's quite possible that she can no longer feel sexual pleasure at all. Though she could still get Nathan off, sexual relations between them would be fraught, especially since Nathan is doubly guilty of her injury-first for involuntarily losing control of the car and second for going after Linderman which instigated the whole thing.
I don't want to get into an argument about the morality of cheating under these circumstances, especially since in the show it's clear that Heidi knows about it, is hurt by it, and chooses not to believe it happened. However, Heidi's paralysis and Nathan's feelings of guilt about it do change the circumstances of his cheating and at the least make it a lot grayer an issue than it first appears.
There is, of course, a counter-argument. One, Peter immediately sees through Nathan's lie and knows he cheated on his wife. This could be because he reads his brother easily, or it could be that Nathan's done it before.
Two, Linderman chooses to send Niki after Nathan to generate blackmail material-hard to believe he would do this without any indication that Nathan would take the bait. He might have without knowing if Nathan had cheated on his wife on the assumption that most men would at least allow their head to be turned by Niki. Or it's possible that a similar ploy worked on Nathan's father and Linderman assumed the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
In any case, I think it's entirely possible to believe that up until the accident, Nathan was completely faithful to his wife.
Fanon is of course invested in Nathan being a cheater because it opens him up to other pairings. You can't slash him with anybody if he's faithful, and I haven't seen a single person want to write Nathan/Heidi.
The show is invested in making Nathan appear despicable because his dubious morality allows the end of the season to be a surprise (well, to some people). But I tend to think of Nathan as a generally moral, loyal, if ambitious person who is at the absolute worst point of his life in season one. Just compare how he acts in "Six Months Ago" towards his wife and brother with how he acts in the present. If he's villainous, it's because circumstances have put him at his weakest, not because he has always been a villain. Which of course makes him that much more interesting.
We see Nathan cheat on his wife in the show, yes. But fanon portrayals of Nathan usually show him as unfaithful to his wife or not really caring about his wife generally. I think there's a case to be made that Nathan sleeping with Niki/Jessica was an isolated incident.
First of all, the show was intentionally showing Nathan as a villain throughout the first season. Multiple times we saw him sell out his family, chose his career over his family, cheat on his wife, lie to Peter, etc.-but we later get explanations that provide extenuating circumstances for all of his actions. The classic example is finding out that Nathan has been building a case against Linderman by acting as a mole for the FBI. In light of that, it makes perfect sense that he be as high-strung and career-obsessed as he is in the beginning of the series-he's got a lot at stake.
The same is true for sleeping with Niki-there are a lot more extenuating circumstances than we are initially led to believe. Look at the facts:
-He does not seek out a liaison; Niki comes on to him.
-He does not try to coerce Niki into sleeping with him and accepts her initial rejection.
-He seems completely uninterested in continuing their relationship or having a mistress. He treats it as a one-time thing.
I, for one, believe Nathan when he tells Peter that he just needed to be with someone who didn't make him feel guilty. His wife is paralyzed. It's quite possible that she can no longer feel sexual pleasure at all. Though she could still get Nathan off, sexual relations between them would be fraught, especially since Nathan is doubly guilty of her injury-first for involuntarily losing control of the car and second for going after Linderman which instigated the whole thing.
I don't want to get into an argument about the morality of cheating under these circumstances, especially since in the show it's clear that Heidi knows about it, is hurt by it, and chooses not to believe it happened. However, Heidi's paralysis and Nathan's feelings of guilt about it do change the circumstances of his cheating and at the least make it a lot grayer an issue than it first appears.
There is, of course, a counter-argument. One, Peter immediately sees through Nathan's lie and knows he cheated on his wife. This could be because he reads his brother easily, or it could be that Nathan's done it before.
Two, Linderman chooses to send Niki after Nathan to generate blackmail material-hard to believe he would do this without any indication that Nathan would take the bait. He might have without knowing if Nathan had cheated on his wife on the assumption that most men would at least allow their head to be turned by Niki. Or it's possible that a similar ploy worked on Nathan's father and Linderman assumed the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
In any case, I think it's entirely possible to believe that up until the accident, Nathan was completely faithful to his wife.
Fanon is of course invested in Nathan being a cheater because it opens him up to other pairings. You can't slash him with anybody if he's faithful, and I haven't seen a single person want to write Nathan/Heidi.
The show is invested in making Nathan appear despicable because his dubious morality allows the end of the season to be a surprise (well, to some people). But I tend to think of Nathan as a generally moral, loyal, if ambitious person who is at the absolute worst point of his life in season one. Just compare how he acts in "Six Months Ago" towards his wife and brother with how he acts in the present. If he's villainous, it's because circumstances have put him at his weakest, not because he has always been a villain. Which of course makes him that much more interesting.