the tolling of the bell

[mystery_sock]

I woke up out of a sound sleep at 6 o'clock this morning (an hour before my alarm was set) and after a few moments of re-contemplating INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, which I saw for the first time last night, a realization came over me.

Adrian Pasdar will be on the Today show this morning... and when I thought about it, I suddenly understood why.

Comments

[mystery_sock]

Well, YEAH, there's my fanon, and nothing's going to change that. But I do pay attention to canon; I DO like to see what they're going to do. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - but dammit, I got addicted to seeing Adrian Pasdar (almost) every week on my TV in a new piece of work; THAT'S what gets me. I needs my Pasdar. And now, while it never did RUIN the show when he wasn't on (or for that matter, Milo wasn't on), it was just so much more deliciously awesome when he was.

That just makes me sad. And the circumstances; and the justification, i.e., the fans demanded it. The fans demanded a blood sacrifice of a major character - but not TOO major. It pretty much came down to considering Nathan to be a supporting regular character, rather than a primary one, which is just not how I feel about Nathan. But I guess the majority of fans never thought twice about him (and actually, a majority of fans absolutely hate Peter, and have since the beginning, which I just plain can't understand - but because they hate Peter and have no attachment to anything Petrelli, they don't give a shit what happens to them. Kring listened; and thus it came to be. I just don't think that's fair. But when you're the showrunner/head writer/editor, you get to do what you think it best, even if it upsets even a large amount of people. I've done it before myself. Twice. This is my karmic comeuppance for killing off beloved characters; so I accept the blame, and you can send all your rotten tomatoes to me.)

[rtwofan]

Yeah, I'm more upset about seeing Pasdar gone than Nathan TBH. In non-Petrellicest scenes, I could sort of take or leave the character. You're utterly right about "regular supporting" character vs "primary character". Nathan wasn't even in the original promo commercials and stuff for the pilot. It was always Hiro-Peter-Claire-Matt-Niki. And maybe Isaac. We never saw any "this is Nathan..." commercials, because Nathan was seen as a supporting element to Peter's plotline. Honestly, this has always been true too. Claire gets her own plot all the time; so does Sylar, so does Hiro. Nathan is always helping out other plotlines, instead of getting his own stream of scenes. His election story in S1 was more of a subplot. He was in a grand total of 19 minutes in S2. Is this a misuse of the brilliant Pasdar? Sure is. But that's what the story requires, and Nathan seemed to be one of those throwaway characters to the writers that wouldn't hit the viewing audience too roughly. I don't think they ever expected Adrian to be as likable or to have that much chemistry with Milo, or for Tim's revolving door storytelling plan to flatline, so they've been stuck with this character who was meant to die, but they couldn't kill because "Hey, we kind of like this guy.."

I disagree that the majority of fans hate Peter though. While yes, I see fans get irritated with Peter, it's a loving sort of irritation (as opposed to the hoards of Sylar haters I see who're just fucking vicious. Heroes Secrets - 90% of the hateful secrets are about ZQ and Sylar; hardly ever about Peter). I think it's the realization that not every character has to be a genius. Some can have compassion to make up it. Peter makes stupid mistakes but dude, he's not Sylar - he was never MEANT to be all that smart. It was pretty life-dumb to graduate at age 26 for a low-paying, depressing job - but his heart made that decision, not his mind. Yet we love him anyway because he's a good person, and over the years grown into someone pretty kickass. Sure, there are haters, just like Sylar has haters too, but I would still consider them both fan favorites and really popular characters - they just have superbly polar fanbases. Nathan's fanbase was kind of "die hards" and "indifferents" which is pretty sad, for the character and for Adrian :/

I don't get what problem people have with the Petrelli Show (which it isn't, and only briefly was for Villians, and even THEN it transformed into the SyElle show). Heroes is a soap opera. It always HAS been and it buggers me when people are just now coming into the realization and think that it's "changed". But no, the Petrellis are your typical rich, dynasty family center like all soap operas have and they've got to be there, or the format of the show isn't the same. You've also got the Bennet family on the side too, and those families are crossed by Claire and yeah...I honestly can't get how people are just NOW seeing the soap opera themes that have been present since freaking episode one. We've had comas, babies, deaths, identity crises, amnesia, a lesbian storyline, oedipal complexes, patricide, matricide, generalized dysfunction, and a good handful of mental disorders. Duh, fandom.

[mystery_sock]

I disagree that the majority of fans hate Peter though.
You don't know the same "fans" (well, viewers, but regular viewers) as I do, then. These guys (who I know IRL; almost exclusively males) all strongly dislike Peter, and let me know all the time. Every new dude who I meet who likes Heroes makes sure that he mentions that he hates Peter. Just saying; my experience.

I would still consider them both fan favorites and really popular characters - they just have superbly polar fanbases.
That's been a major part of my pain as a Heroes fan - I never thought that I had to take sides. I have loved Sylar from moment one. Sure, it's gone too far, and I'd have chosen Nathan over him any day, but I LOVE his character. Love it to death. And my love for him doesn't make me love Peter any less. Peter's my ANGEL. He is with me everywhere I go, every minute of the day. That's why I don't even really consider him my favorite; it's like saying that you love your left ear more than you love your right. It's PART of you. And he is a part of me.

Heroes is a soap opera
Yep. And for 90% of people, "soap opera" is an insult. Whereas to me, it's my bread and butter. Science fiction/fantasy/horror soap operas? THAT'S MY SHIT RIGHT THERE! It's my favorite anything, it's what I do myself, and I love it. But most genre fans will run screaming at the first hint of soapy plotlines. Is it because it's stereotyped as being feminine?

I've said it before and I'll say it again - it amazes me that anyone but me liked this show to begin with. And I wish that most of them had never bothered to watch it, so I wouldn't have to hear them tell me all about what's wrong with it. Oh well; that's adulthood, ain't it? A non-stop battle over the irrelevant and the personal.