Heh, I'm starting to think I may just be the only person who didn't like this episode. Well. The only person who is not entirely invested in Elle or shipping her with Sylar.
Although I never saw the bridge scene as being the definitive moment where Bennet realizes that he loves Claire, just one of a natural progression.
Which I realize is what I've been implying, but not what I actually meant. Somehow. I mean: I agree with you on the natural progression part. I've seen the bridge scene as a major push for Bennet in the direction of accepting Claire as his own, and loving her, and putting her above that identity as a Company Man, but it's by no means definitive.
And I get the other stuff. I really, really do. If I were a big Sylar fan, I would probably be thrilled by this. Doubly so if I were a Peter/Sylar fan; he saved him from having to kill his father! They might not be brothers after all, or maybe half brothers, but either way, less icky! Hurray! But since I am neither of those things, and evil!Sylar bores me (well, to be fair, so does good!Sylar, and he also annoys me by being so gullible), there wasn't enough good in this episode to keep me from being pissed off at it.
And it's entirely understandable to pretend his storyline this season, up to this point, didn't happen; the writers seem to be heading in that direction as well. The majority of this season, really, seems to me to have been like WWI: lots of unnecessary carnage, some unexpected alliances, but in the end, things are basically back to where they were at the start of the conflict. The whole thing really seems to exist just to set things up for WWII, which will presumably be, y'know, Volume 4.
The thing that really bugged me was the hunting down the sketchbook/using it as an instruction manual thing.
You know what I found to be hilarious about this? For all the fuss that everyone, in the episode and amongst the fandom, made about it? The whole thing really made no difference at all. We saw Hiro get stuck in the past, which we then saw happen; we saw Claire come back, which we then saw happen. We learned nothing new at all from the darn sketchbook, did we? No harbingers of coming doom? No other natural occurrences it would just be easier to just google? "Oh noes! Next weekend, there will be...a meteor shower! And all our powers will be musical chaired!" Nothing.
Hiro's storyline was definitely the high point. Dear thing. His mother was lovely, he was lovely. I would've enjoyed an entire episode just focusing on them but of course, that would be mostly subtitled and of course we can't have that now, can we?
On the other hand, I didn't like the last episode, but you did, so we're even. :)
Yeah, it probably was one of the major things. And his just being convinced like that after having her for just a few hours is really more than a little ridiculous, being such a strict Company Man and all.
This was the "let's shock the hell out of everyone because season 2 was so bland" volume. Even Arthur, whom I despise and am really glad is dead, was too short-lived to signify much except to remind me that Adam died for no reason.
I kinda knew the sketchbook was going to be lame. They were just random sketches, not a fully outlined comic. And since they keep going back and for between it and what's happening, it's really pointless.
People's irritation with subtitles really annoys me. I think it's an American culture thing, for everywhere else I've been people are more than used to reading subtitles. Though a whole episode of them would have killed me. I could barely watch them at the end. I don't remember if this has come up at any point, but my mom died when I was ten, so in this episode Hiro = me. I kept putting myself in his situation and it was too much. And I though "Cautionary Tales" was bad (because of this, not the ep itself).
*sigh* Oh Bennet. He's seeming less and less awesome sometimes, to me. He really, really is.
This is true; and even with all my issues with it, I did get a lot more enjoyment out of this season than last season. Which, in a sense, I guess you could say, makes it a better season. I guess. Exactly; Adam is dead, Elle is dead, Maya is...off in New Jersey. Monica is off in New Orleans, presumably. So...overall...we're almost back to the status quo of S1. The only significant change has been Peter's lose of his powers, and his development of a personality.
Really, really pointless. Like, you're going to bring back Isaac and his sketchbook for that? Seriously? At least the paintings were mysterious for a while, and open to interpretation. Of course, next season, when they need another precog, they're going to send Bennet out on the hunt for...for Isaac's fingerpaintings from kindergarten. Or something.
I think that as both adult!Hiro and his mother could speak English, they could probably have avoided the entirely subtitled episode. I didn't know that about your mom; I'm sorry. I can see why that would make that part of the episode, which was already the high point, even more poignant.
I think he suffers from the excesive Claire fail. I'm liking him better now when he's away from her, which feels wrong because his connection to her is one of the main things that made me love him in the first place back in season 1.
Personally, due to Adam (I fully admit the bias), I enjoyed season 2 more. And also because of the sappy!Gabriel fail in this one, though there was plenty of Sylar fail in the second one, which was mostly Maya fail (I'm using fail a lot, aren't I?)
Oh god. Is it sad that I don't find it that unlikely?
Yeah, the relationship between the two of them back in S1 was a highlight; Bennet's always reminded me of my dad, for however weird that is. Very loyal, very smart. My dad's not nearly as badass (I think), naturally, but it's how much he clearly came to love Claire that made him great to me. But I'm a bit of a sucker for father-daughter dynamics.
Hee. And it's pretty clear that the main reason I'm enjoying S3 more is because of the interesting Peter. Sappy!Gabriel must've been as frustrating for you as stupid!Peter was for me, maybe even more so, because S1 Peter didn't always come off as a bright and shining star himself.
I think it could be the basis of a really good crack!fic, that search. And as such, I think it's entirely likely that it will be a storyline next season.
Me, too. I think it's because my Dad's so awesome. Though I always think of him as a milder (much milder) version of Jack Bristow from Alias. Same fatherly protectiveness, but no moral greyness at all. *see icon*
Oh, I love interesting Peter. I can finally stop ignoring his idiocy. Stupid!Peter was also infuriating for me, especially since I felt to defend his character to one girl on my flist who hates him predominantly because of season 2. Then I felt like those Mohinder fans who were also compelled to defend his idiocy even though it bugged them just as much.
Why must the show be crack? It's not even good crack.
Hah. This might seem random, but I'm finding it hilarious that it's the two of us with our Hispanic daddies that identify them as much as we do with the paradigms of white-bread badass motherfuckers Jack Bristow and Noah Bennet. Y'know, I always thought Jack Bristow and Noah Bennet would make great friends, or at least drinking partners. Bitching about their nutty daughters and their crazy bosses...I'm surprised no one has written that fic.
I've admittedly come around to forgiving Peter for a lot of his dumber moments. I mean, with Adam...well, Adam. Seriously. I'd be charmed too, and I'm suspicious of everything and everyone. The man's a master manipulator and Peter is always on the lookout for strong authority figures (and given how crappy a father he had, no wonder). Stupid!Peter was only really stupid to me during the Ireland arc. And that was more than just the dialogue, it was the fact that...well, we spent that whole time watching Peter learn what we already knew: I've got powers, I can do bad things, girls find me very attractive, men like getting me naked and splashing water on me. Eh, old news there, Peter.
I have almost no idea how to justify Mohinder's...anything. Admittedly because I have very little interest in him. Beyond the pretty, and now that's...going the way of the fly, so...yeah.
Well, it's crack that a lot of people have enjoyed. I guess we shouldn't knock it.
Although my dad's not really like them at all. He's awesome in more goofy ways. But the caring, would move mar y tierra for their daughters thing, definitely. I've been wanting to write that fic for weeks now, but, alas, am idea-less. One day.
I think you should be excused if Adam is charming you. Because really, how can one resist? Oh, I hated the Ireland arc. It was stupid, pointless, and nothing more than Kring's way of cheating by having old character's go through the discovering their powers thing again.
Mohinder's been boring me since season 1. In season 2, he annoyed the hell out of me. In this one, I was actually laughing at the crack in the midst of headesking.
Same; my dad's a big ol' nerd (although I still maintain that Bennet, under the badassery, is also a big ol' nerd). But if he had to go out and kill a superpowered serial killer in order to protect me, I know for sure that he'd go straight to the library and/or online to figure out the best way to kill superpowered serial killers, and then go and do that. I know the "one day" feeling. So well.
*sigh* Oh, Ireland arc. Such potential; he was so close to Claude! And yet all wasted. And I'm still pissed that they never addressed Caitlin's fate. And I didn't even like her!
I found him pretty and somewhat charming (it was the accent. And the nerdness) in S1. In S2 I liked him up until the point where he'd drunk the Company kool-aid, and no one shoots Noah Bennet and gets away with it! Claude gets a provisional pass on that one, if he so chooses. At this point I'm just feeling bad for Sendhil. Really, really bad for Sendhil.
Hee. I just got an image of Noah telling Claire the latest dinosaur discoveries in the car going to school like my Dad did with me. Calling the chickens "little dinosaurs".
True. Just one island over. Who knows, maybe Claude was in Dublin at the time. Get back, bunny! Back! Caitlin was a casualty of the the "let's pretend season 2 didn't happen" agenda. I don't mind so much because I hated her, but it's so sloppy.
I feel really bad for the actors who are stuck doing crappy roles. It's really unfair. Understandable. Claude definitely deserves a free shot, though he wouldn't really kill him.
Awww. That just gave me a serious case of the warm and fuzzies. Dads are nice.
*sigh* Claude should've just rescued him. And brought him to the House of Awesome. To keep him away from his totally batshit family and all their problems. Yeah, I know. And in a sense I'm glad they didn't go back for her, because it would've slowed things down. But still. Sloppy. And it doesn't make Peter look great, which hurts.
It really is; I'm sure Sendhil is glad to have such a steady role, but seriously. At this point...how do you even act that? Beyond totally freaked out by what a total freak you are, I guess. Nah, he wouldn't. Claude's too good a guy for that.
But it would have been so sad if Peter didn't remember him. Though maybe seeing him would have brought his memory back, or perhaps a whack to the head from the stick.
I wonder if he'll be cured. Or perhaps he'll keep changing into that monster thing.
It would've been sad, but I think it might've even been better for Peter. Because he could learn to live and be a person not based on his nutjob relatives, or a band of rather incompetent petty thieves, but a decent guy. Who occasionally whacks him on the head with the stick, but only when he really deserves it.
I hope, for the sake of all involved, that he'll be cured by the catalyst. And that even if that gives him a power (which I almost hope it wouldn't, but blah), it'll be one he can control. And then he can go back...well, whatever he did before he was all about his father's research and his father's killer and his father's father. Or. You know. his adopted daughter, it might be nice if he remembered her a little.
Yeah. He really does need to get as far away from his family as possible (just like Claude told him).
Speaking off, I just realized. Has Matt mentioned Molly? I know he saw her in the future, but he hasn't bothered to check up on her or Mohinder, who she's supposed to be with as far as he knows. Now this is bugging me.
Proving, as always, that Claude is brilliant and amazing. He even knew that Arthur was an ass. Although just talking to Peter for three seconds could probably let you glean his multitude of daddy issues.
I don't think he has, actually; he called Mohinder, and I'm going to guess we can assume that...he somehow found out about Molly being in a safe place. Although considering Mohinder's flakiness (if not his nuttiness, which I realize Matt probably doesn't know about) who knows if you could trust that?
Peter's family fucked him up so bad. Claude's like the Petrelli cure, only not so lame sounding. And what is it with this show and daddy issues? Peter, Matt, Mohinder, Claire, Elle, Hiro in a way, people I'm probably forgetting about?
Although I never saw the bridge scene as being the definitive moment where Bennet realizes that he loves Claire, just one of a natural progression.
Which I realize is what I've been implying, but not what I actually meant. Somehow. I mean: I agree with you on the natural progression part. I've seen the bridge scene as a major push for Bennet in the direction of accepting Claire as his own, and loving her, and putting her above that identity as a Company Man, but it's by no means definitive.
And I get the other stuff. I really, really do. If I were a big Sylar fan, I would probably be thrilled by this. Doubly so if I were a Peter/Sylar fan; he saved him from having to kill his father! They might not be brothers after all, or maybe half brothers, but either way, less icky! Hurray! But since I am neither of those things, and evil!Sylar bores me (well, to be fair, so does good!Sylar, and he also annoys me by being so gullible), there wasn't enough good in this episode to keep me from being pissed off at it.
And it's entirely understandable to pretend his storyline this season, up to this point, didn't happen; the writers seem to be heading in that direction as well. The majority of this season, really, seems to me to have been like WWI: lots of unnecessary carnage, some unexpected alliances, but in the end, things are basically back to where they were at the start of the conflict. The whole thing really seems to exist just to set things up for WWII, which will presumably be, y'know, Volume 4.
The thing that really bugged me was the hunting down the sketchbook/using it as an instruction manual thing.
You know what I found to be hilarious about this? For all the fuss that everyone, in the episode and amongst the fandom, made about it? The whole thing really made no difference at all. We saw Hiro get stuck in the past, which we then saw happen; we saw Claire come back, which we then saw happen. We learned nothing new at all from the darn sketchbook, did we? No harbingers of coming doom? No other natural occurrences it would just be easier to just google? "Oh noes! Next weekend, there will be...a meteor shower! And all our powers will be musical chaired!" Nothing.
Hiro's storyline was definitely the high point. Dear thing. His mother was lovely, he was lovely. I would've enjoyed an entire episode just focusing on them but of course, that would be mostly subtitled and of course we can't have that now, can we?
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Yeah, it probably was one of the major things. And his just being convinced like that after having her for just a few hours is really more than a little ridiculous, being such a strict Company Man and all.
This was the "let's shock the hell out of everyone because season 2 was so bland" volume. Even Arthur, whom I despise and am really glad is dead, was too short-lived to signify much except to remind me that Adam died for no reason.
I kinda knew the sketchbook was going to be lame. They were just random sketches, not a fully outlined comic. And since they keep going back and for between it and what's happening, it's really pointless.
People's irritation with subtitles really annoys me. I think it's an American culture thing, for everywhere else I've been people are more than used to reading subtitles. Though a whole episode of them would have killed me. I could barely watch them at the end. I don't remember if this has come up at any point, but my mom died when I was ten, so in this episode Hiro = me. I kept putting myself in his situation and it was too much. And I though "Cautionary Tales" was bad (because of this, not the ep itself).
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*sigh* Oh Bennet. He's seeming less and less awesome sometimes, to me. He really, really is.
This is true; and even with all my issues with it, I did get a lot more enjoyment out of this season than last season. Which, in a sense, I guess you could say, makes it a better season. I guess. Exactly; Adam is dead, Elle is dead, Maya is...off in New Jersey. Monica is off in New Orleans, presumably. So...overall...we're almost back to the status quo of S1. The only significant change has been Peter's lose of his powers, and his development of a personality.
Really, really pointless. Like, you're going to bring back Isaac and his sketchbook for that? Seriously? At least the paintings were mysterious for a while, and open to interpretation. Of course, next season, when they need another precog, they're going to send Bennet out on the hunt for...for Isaac's fingerpaintings from kindergarten. Or something.
I think that as both adult!Hiro and his mother could speak English, they could probably have avoided the entirely subtitled episode. I didn't know that about your mom; I'm sorry. I can see why that would make that part of the episode, which was already the high point, even more poignant.
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Personally, due to Adam (I fully admit the bias), I enjoyed season 2 more. And also because of the sappy!Gabriel fail in this one, though there was plenty of Sylar fail in the second one, which was mostly Maya fail (I'm using fail a lot, aren't I?)
Oh god. Is it sad that I don't find it that unlikely?
Yeah. It's one of those sweet and sour things.
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Hee. And it's pretty clear that the main reason I'm enjoying S3 more is because of the interesting Peter. Sappy!Gabriel must've been as frustrating for you as stupid!Peter was for me, maybe even more so, because S1 Peter didn't always come off as a bright and shining star himself.
I think it could be the basis of a really good crack!fic, that search. And as such, I think it's entirely likely that it will be a storyline next season.
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Oh, I love interesting Peter. I can finally stop ignoring his idiocy. Stupid!Peter was also infuriating for me, especially since I felt to defend his character to one girl on my flist who hates him predominantly because of season 2. Then I felt like those Mohinder fans who were also compelled to defend his idiocy even though it bugged them just as much.
Why must the show be crack? It's not even good crack.
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I've admittedly come around to forgiving Peter for a lot of his dumber moments. I mean, with Adam...well, Adam. Seriously. I'd be charmed too, and I'm suspicious of everything and everyone. The man's a master manipulator and Peter is always on the lookout for strong authority figures (and given how crappy a father he had, no wonder). Stupid!Peter was only really stupid to me during the Ireland arc. And that was more than just the dialogue, it was the fact that...well, we spent that whole time watching Peter learn what we already knew: I've got powers, I can do bad things, girls find me very attractive, men like getting me naked and splashing water on me. Eh, old news there, Peter.
I have almost no idea how to justify Mohinder's...anything. Admittedly because I have very little interest in him. Beyond the pretty, and now that's...going the way of the fly, so...yeah.
Well, it's crack that a lot of people have enjoyed. I guess we shouldn't knock it.
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I think you should be excused if Adam is charming you. Because really, how can one resist? Oh, I hated the Ireland arc. It was stupid, pointless, and nothing more than Kring's way of cheating by having old character's go through the discovering their powers thing again.
Mohinder's been boring me since season 1. In season 2, he annoyed the hell out of me. In this one, I was actually laughing at the crack in the midst of headesking.
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*sigh* Oh, Ireland arc. Such potential; he was so close to Claude! And yet all wasted. And I'm still pissed that they never addressed Caitlin's fate. And I didn't even like her!
I found him pretty and somewhat charming (it was the accent. And the nerdness) in S1. In S2 I liked him up until the point where he'd drunk the Company kool-aid, and no one shoots Noah Bennet and gets away with it! Claude gets a provisional pass on that one, if he so chooses. At this point I'm just feeling bad for Sendhil. Really, really bad for Sendhil.
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True. Just one island over. Who knows, maybe Claude was in Dublin at the time. Get back, bunny! Back! Caitlin was a casualty of the the "let's pretend season 2 didn't happen" agenda. I don't mind so much because I hated her, but it's so sloppy.
I feel really bad for the actors who are stuck doing crappy roles. It's really unfair. Understandable. Claude definitely deserves a free shot, though he wouldn't really kill him.
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*sigh* Claude should've just rescued him. And brought him to the House of Awesome. To keep him away from his totally batshit family and all their problems. Yeah, I know. And in a sense I'm glad they didn't go back for her, because it would've slowed things down. But still. Sloppy. And it doesn't make Peter look great, which hurts.
It really is; I'm sure Sendhil is glad to have such a steady role, but seriously. At this point...how do you even act that? Beyond totally freaked out by what a total freak you are, I guess. Nah, he wouldn't. Claude's too good a guy for that.
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I wonder if he'll be cured. Or perhaps he'll keep changing into that monster thing.
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I hope, for the sake of all involved, that he'll be cured by the catalyst. And that even if that gives him a power (which I almost hope it wouldn't, but blah), it'll be one he can control. And then he can go back...well, whatever he did before he was all about his father's research and his father's killer and his father's father. Or. You know. his adopted daughter, it might be nice if he remembered her a little.
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Speaking off, I just realized. Has Matt mentioned Molly? I know he saw her in the future, but he hasn't bothered to check up on her or Mohinder, who she's supposed to be with as far as he knows. Now this is bugging me.
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I don't think he has, actually; he called Mohinder, and I'm going to guess we can assume that...he somehow found out about Molly being in a safe place. Although considering Mohinder's flakiness (if not his nuttiness, which I realize Matt probably doesn't know about) who knows if you could trust that?
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Mm. I still feel he should do something.
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