What do you think about Sylar's feelings and remorse towards Elle?
Now, I think that we all agree that Sylar had strong feelings for Elle and regreted her death, but what are your thoughts on the exact strength of those feelings as well as how long his regret lasted? I have some doubts because of four things: 1. the length of time they were actually in physcial contact 2. how desperate Sylar was to please the man whom he thought to be his father 3. the number of times that Sylar tried to kill Elle before the "forgivness" epsoide 4. how Elle and the issue of her death is almost instantly forgotten about
First off, no matter what this show wants us to think, it takes time to develop feelings for someone that are not based on lust, and it takes even longer for those feelings to rise above crush level. Sylar and Elle had at the most one week in which they were actually together. This does not include the year that the company was hunting Sylar, because even though they'd met before there was no contact beyond when Elle zapped him in Mohinder's lab and Sylar tried to kill her after he had killed her father. Now, I can see Sylar developing a crush on Elle as well as being attracted to her during those 2 - 3 days in his apartment, but his feelings leaping from that into "i'm-willing-to-die-for-you" love within three days after meeting her again? No. I think it's more likley that Sylar was trying so hard to be good and please his "father", that he was willing to go to almost any lengths to do so. You want to make your father proud and he wants you to take a power using empathy? Well, then you're going to try your hardest to contect with whoever is in that cell. If that person happens to be the girl whose father you recentally murdered as well as tried to kill and caused devesating pain, not to mention the object of your crush and sexual desire? Well that's even better. Your father gives his approval (somthing you desperatly crave) by saying that the two of you "make a good pairing"? Great! Even better then the cell! Now, I do not think that these were Sylar's sole reasons for forgiving Elle or what lead to their partnership and sex, but I do think that his desire for his "father's" approval was a large factor in his actions.
Second, Sylar tried to kill Elle twice after meeting her for the first time. The first was in Mohinder's lab when he tried to shoot her, and the second was right after her killed her father when he was trying to take her power. Now, I'm not ruling out the possibitly that Sylar never actually intended to kill Elle that first time, and the second time and was only trying to hurt her on the level that she hurt him when she lied to him and tricked him into killing Trevor (he does say that Elle is more at fault then anyone for what he has become).... but given that it's Sylar that dosen't fully add up. Sylar already hurt Elle much more then she hurt him when he not only killed her father, but then mocked Elle by employing Bob's abititly on the gun. Sylar is far from stupid, so he has to have known how devesating that would be for Elle, but instead of knocking her out and leaving her there or somthing, he then procedes to slice open her skull (not doubt with the intention of taking her power, which also would have killed her due to blood loss or shock or whatever). If Sylar's intention was to only cause Elle emontional pain then he would have done so. Instead I'm forced to conclude that Sylar truly meant to kill Elle as payback for what he viewed as an ultimate betrayal.
After Sylar killed Elle I do belive that he felt remorse because he put her skull cap back on and creameted her body, but I don't really think that his remorse lasted beyond the next epsoide or two. I mean, not only does Sylar go on and on about lies and finding answers (which implies to me that Sylar at the very least belived that Elle had lied to him about his parents and quite possibly about loving him (as opposed to the fantsy and freedom that he represented) as well Elle not being the key to his answers), but Sylar never mentions her again, not even in passing. He could have said somthing to Luke when they were talking about him being a seril killer, somfthing like... " there was someone who I thought was changing me....". Or in "The Wall", when Sylar tells Peter that maybe he earned his solitude he could have muttered " she belived in me and I betrayed her" Or when Sylar keeps going whacko with his shapeshifting and shifts into his mother, he could have said "when I killed one of the two woman who have ever loved me." Any of this would have told us that he still had feelings for Elle or was regreting killing her, but she dose not get a single mention. It seems to me that the only person that Sylar actually regreted killing was his mother, not Elle.
One more thing that comes to mind is when Matt Parkman is forcing Sylar to think he's Nathan (looking through some of Sylar's memories in the process) and in the carnival fun house when that guy is making Sylar's memories appear in the mirrors. All of them are of his murders, and Elle happens to be one of them. I've noticed that hard core Syelle fans point to this as ultimate evidence that Elle was the love of Sylar's life and he held forever lasting regret for killing her. The thing is through, is that those memories are of almost all of his murders. If what those fans say is true, that wouldn't the same hold true for Charlie Andrews, Sue Landers, Jackie Willcox, and all of the others he had killed? Clearly that is not the case. It might have been different if Elle was shown more then any of the others or for a longer length of time, but she wasn't, Just because Elle is shown in his memories dose not mean that after this length of time she has any more emontional connection to Sylar then any of the others.
So, this is what I think. What about you?