ams (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} random_amsy) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} heroes_sylar,@ 2008-11-18 23:29:00 |
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*delurks*
Let me preface this by saying that Sylar fans are the people that make the Heroes fandom awesome. You were the people that, way back in season one, saw a crazy guy that stole brains and went 'lol he's awesome.' He has a cult status that few other television characters have achieved. Ever. And I think that's rad.
That being said, some of you have been frustrating me, of late. Namely, there's an alarming number of fans that are OMG NEVAR WATCHING AGIN!!! because they feel that the writers are messing up Sylar's characterization so terribly. I fundamentally disagree, and I know many other people do, too, but for some reason, no one else is saying anything.
I know most of the people here are enjoying S3 as much as I am, but if anyone is of a dissenting opinion, I'd love to discuss. ^^
Instead of aimlessly bitching, I'm going to go through all the problems people have with this season and the last, complaint by complaint, and explain my take on things.
Sylar is suddenly, out of nowhere, a mama's boy.
Sylar's relationship with Arthur and Angela is a manifestation of a deeper need he's had since we first met Gabriel in season one: he needs to be told that he's good enough. His interaction with his mother in 1x21 consisted entirely of him trying to win her approval with his powers, and ended with a plea for her to help him get himself under control before he went nuclear. She told him she wanted him to be an investment banker, then tried to kill him. It's clear from the beginning that he grew up with a mentally disturbed, socially inept, domineering woman, and that does not cut it in the maternal love department.
On top of that, remember back in 1x10? We see Gabriel first meet Chandra, and before we knew anything else about him, we heard him tell Chandra that he wished when he was younger that his family wasn't really his family. Not only is this a solid precursor for his immediate attachment to 'special' parents, but it explains his sudden need to impress Chandra with a power, as well; anyone who looks at him twice, who sees the potential for something great in him, is someone he feels obligated to win over, to make proud. His mother, Chandra, Mohinder, Angela, Arthur, and Elle all fit that description.
Angela, of course, sets herself apart by treating Sylar like a human being for the first time since he killed; even Chandra saw him as a test subject, someone to toss aside once he proved not to have a detectable ability. She tells him that she believes he can be saved [whether she believes it or not is up for debate], which is exactly what he's been wanting to hear since he painted all those Bible verses on his apartment walls. When Arthur debunks that affection, Sylar latches on to the closest thing that can compare; a father's love. Though it's less sincere, and we have yet to see whether Sylar's heart is really in it [he did save Peter...], we can be sure that young Gabriel's relationship with his father was just as strained as that with his mother, what with the pressures to become a watchmaker, and Arthur is a welcome replacement, appreciating Sylar for what he is capable of and helping him realize it.
Sylar is suddenly, out of nowhere, an empath.
It's a reasonable explanation for how he actually transferred the powers of others to himself. It's one thing to see how something works; it's another thing entirely to change one's DNA to replicate that power. Even if it is kind of cheesy, it makes way more sense than 'he looks at the brains and then he can do it too.'
As for where the intuitive aptitude went, he obviously got it somewhere, so, okay, start with the theories. For example, we know that Arthur and Angela 'gave Sylar up for adoption,' and that company people tend to give powered babies to other company people. Sylar's father, a fellow watchmaker, might have had some nefarious Company bsns going on on the side, and passed intuitive aptitude on to his son. You never know.
The ~~**hunger**~~ is retarded.
Okay, I will admit that calling it 'the hunnnnnger' makes it sound completely ridiculous, but if you think about the actual concept, it makes perfect sense. Sylar has the capacity to know how everything works, and with that capacity comes a need, a desire to figure out everything. He has the ability to realize one of the pillars of human nature - to understand the world around him, with all its nuances and details. It's the thing that drove him to kill in the first place, even if that's not what they were calling it at the time. It drove him to manipulate Mohinder, to follow Maya all the way from Mexico to New York to get his powers back so he could keep doing his thing, and it's what he's now recognized and is trying to fight.
As for him trying to fight it instead of succumbing to it like an evil villain should, come on, I'm starting to think no one else watched 1x21 at all. The writers put those scenes with his mother in for a reason. Killing a few individual people was one thing; he could justify that by saying they didn't deserve what they had, that it was an evolutionary imperative [again with the pathological need to be special]. But when he realized that he was going to take out an entire city of innocent people, he balked, wondered what he was doing with himself, went to great lengths to stop before it went too far. Obviously it didn't work, but it planted the seed in our minds that he was not lost, that there was still a woobie Gabriel inside, somewhere, waiting for someone to realize what was wrong with him and help him.
Which leads me to my next point.
The writers only put Sylar and Elle together so that they can pull in fans, make Sylar a woobie, masturbate to their favorite actors, etc.
First of all, I keep seeing this, but using the word 'masturbate' in your arguments does not make you sound morally or intellectually superior. It makes you sound stupid. Especially when you spell it wrong.
Anyway, this is the one that really irritates me. I never really shipped them, or saw the allure, and I'm still not hugely invested, but I do think it's one of the best-handled relationships, retcon aside, that the show has ever had. This is why.
I've covered Sylar. He's so consumed with guilt that he doesn't know how to deal with it, he's desperately looking for someone who will see him for something other than a mindless killer. And if you accept the canonity of 3x08 [which is now part of the canon Heroesverse, whether you like it or not], Elle was the first person to enter his life after the murder of Brian Davis [or, for continuity's sake, Chandra Suresh] who smiled at him and was nice to him. She walked in, a complete stranger, and talked him out of suicide. Plus, you know, she's really, really adorable. It's understandable that he'd be at least a little bit attracted to her - and beyond physical beauty, like I said a while ago, she took the time out of her life to tell him that he was worth the oxygen he used up every day, which we've been shown over and over again since season one is something he craves.
As far as Elle goes, yes, Sylar killed her father, but she has so many issues beyond that. First off, when her father was alive, they did not have anything even remotely resembling a healthy relationship. He talked down to her, treated her like a child, berated her for the smallest mistakes, even those that lead to a broken arm and a half-sawed head. This isn't even getting into the fact that he experimented on her and erased her memory. When she found him dead, her reaction wasn't sadness, only anger at Sylar for taking away the only person she had in the world to depend on, fear at no longer having a constant in her life, even one that absued her like Bob did. She needed a new rock; she tried to find it in HRG, Claude, even Claire, but no one else understood her or gave a shit, in the end, what happened to her.
Meeting Sylar on the assignment [continuity, what?] was probably the first time Elle had ever had that kind of effect on anyone in her life. Growing up with nothing but her father's disapproval and the cold atmosphere of the Company, it was jarring to have Sylar be so grateful to her. She didn't know how to react other than to stick to the plan and manipulate his affections, which, of course, pissed him off a little bit, but it wasn't out of character at all for her to charm him like she did, while having her own private emotions that confused her and were ultimately pushed aside in favor of doing what HRG and her father told her to do. We were introduced to a sadistic, disturbed Elle, not an Elle without emotions and interpersonal needs, albeit broken ones.
Elle betrays Sylar, Sylar betrays Elle. They hate each other, blame each other for everything that's happened in their lives. But the truth of the matter is that they are both victims of the people around them, battered and demeaned and broken to the point that they have lost track of who they are. At risk of sounding cliche, they are the only two that can understand one another - which was the entire point of this week's scenes. Sylar has been thrown into a family that makes him feel special, needed, for the first time in his life, and has no idea that he's being manipulated; he's just trying to win the approval of his parents and brothers by being what they want him to be: a good person. He's trying to come to terms with what he's done, to reconcile his new goals with his past. Elle is completely lost, looking for something to take out her anger on, a way to get rid of the pain of her out-of-control power.
Elle attacks Sylar not just because she's angry at him, but because she's angry at her father for leaving her alone, the Company for making her into something she doesn't like, the world for being big and scary and impossible to cope with. Sylar takes it not just because he deserves it from her, but because he deserves it for every terrible thing he's ever done, and he knows it. Her attack is therapy for them both; they're not just getting over their anger with one another, they're coming to terms with all of their issues in a lovely, symbolic way.
And then, of course, Elle wants to die, and Sylar doesn't kill her. It's not because he's gone ~soft~, but because he sees himself in her, understands what she's going through because he's gone through the same feelings of rejection and helplessness. He realizes exactly what Arthur meant for him to realize - that skull-sawing isn't the only way to 'fix' someone [b'awwwww cheese]. He couldn't use his empathy like a normal person before because he had no idea what it was like to understand and be understood, but that compassion, for lack of a better word, was unlocked by a confrontation with someone with comparable issues.
So, that 'gigglefest?' That was Elle finding another person in the world that had felt as betrayed as she had and had found a way to push through it. That was Sylar realizing that he didn't have to kill anymore, that he could be 'good' and still be special. That shared realization reignited that bond they'd felt however many months ago, and the rest is ... just as planned by Arthur. Oshi--
Or, you know, I could be completely off. That's just my take.Also, would be better with Mohinder.
Fangirls only like Sylar because he doesn't wear clothes very often.
Speaking as a lesbian who still finds Sylar's story compelling, I can tell you pretty concretely that that's not always the case.
Anyway, am I saying that the writing this season has been perfect? Of course not. It's been pretty awful, now and then. All I'm saying is that half the fandom isn't giving the writers enough credit. A character that could have been just another villain bent on being the most powerful guy in the world has been replaced with a layered character with real motivations and a very human core. And if you can't stand to see him be a hero, just remember: he's with Arthur. He's not going to be following in Hiro's footsteps anytime soon.
I don't know. Thoughts?
Let me preface this by saying that Sylar fans are the people that make the Heroes fandom awesome. You were the people that, way back in season one, saw a crazy guy that stole brains and went 'lol he's awesome.' He has a cult status that few other television characters have achieved. Ever. And I think that's rad.
That being said, some of you have been frustrating me, of late. Namely, there's an alarming number of fans that are OMG NEVAR WATCHING AGIN!!! because they feel that the writers are messing up Sylar's characterization so terribly. I fundamentally disagree, and I know many other people do, too, but for some reason, no one else is saying anything.
I know most of the people here are enjoying S3 as much as I am, but if anyone is of a dissenting opinion, I'd love to discuss. ^^
Instead of aimlessly bitching, I'm going to go through all the problems people have with this season and the last, complaint by complaint, and explain my take on things.
Sylar is suddenly, out of nowhere, a mama's boy.
Sylar's relationship with Arthur and Angela is a manifestation of a deeper need he's had since we first met Gabriel in season one: he needs to be told that he's good enough. His interaction with his mother in 1x21 consisted entirely of him trying to win her approval with his powers, and ended with a plea for her to help him get himself under control before he went nuclear. She told him she wanted him to be an investment banker, then tried to kill him. It's clear from the beginning that he grew up with a mentally disturbed, socially inept, domineering woman, and that does not cut it in the maternal love department.
On top of that, remember back in 1x10? We see Gabriel first meet Chandra, and before we knew anything else about him, we heard him tell Chandra that he wished when he was younger that his family wasn't really his family. Not only is this a solid precursor for his immediate attachment to 'special' parents, but it explains his sudden need to impress Chandra with a power, as well; anyone who looks at him twice, who sees the potential for something great in him, is someone he feels obligated to win over, to make proud. His mother, Chandra, Mohinder, Angela, Arthur, and Elle all fit that description.
Angela, of course, sets herself apart by treating Sylar like a human being for the first time since he killed; even Chandra saw him as a test subject, someone to toss aside once he proved not to have a detectable ability. She tells him that she believes he can be saved [whether she believes it or not is up for debate], which is exactly what he's been wanting to hear since he painted all those Bible verses on his apartment walls. When Arthur debunks that affection, Sylar latches on to the closest thing that can compare; a father's love. Though it's less sincere, and we have yet to see whether Sylar's heart is really in it [he did save Peter...], we can be sure that young Gabriel's relationship with his father was just as strained as that with his mother, what with the pressures to become a watchmaker, and Arthur is a welcome replacement, appreciating Sylar for what he is capable of and helping him realize it.
Sylar is suddenly, out of nowhere, an empath.
It's a reasonable explanation for how he actually transferred the powers of others to himself. It's one thing to see how something works; it's another thing entirely to change one's DNA to replicate that power. Even if it is kind of cheesy, it makes way more sense than 'he looks at the brains and then he can do it too.'
As for where the intuitive aptitude went, he obviously got it somewhere, so, okay, start with the theories. For example, we know that Arthur and Angela 'gave Sylar up for adoption,' and that company people tend to give powered babies to other company people. Sylar's father, a fellow watchmaker, might have had some nefarious Company bsns going on on the side, and passed intuitive aptitude on to his son. You never know.
The ~~**hunger**~~ is retarded.
Okay, I will admit that calling it 'the hunnnnnger' makes it sound completely ridiculous, but if you think about the actual concept, it makes perfect sense. Sylar has the capacity to know how everything works, and with that capacity comes a need, a desire to figure out everything. He has the ability to realize one of the pillars of human nature - to understand the world around him, with all its nuances and details. It's the thing that drove him to kill in the first place, even if that's not what they were calling it at the time. It drove him to manipulate Mohinder, to follow Maya all the way from Mexico to New York to get his powers back so he could keep doing his thing, and it's what he's now recognized and is trying to fight.
As for him trying to fight it instead of succumbing to it like an evil villain should, come on, I'm starting to think no one else watched 1x21 at all. The writers put those scenes with his mother in for a reason. Killing a few individual people was one thing; he could justify that by saying they didn't deserve what they had, that it was an evolutionary imperative [again with the pathological need to be special]. But when he realized that he was going to take out an entire city of innocent people, he balked, wondered what he was doing with himself, went to great lengths to stop before it went too far. Obviously it didn't work, but it planted the seed in our minds that he was not lost, that there was still a woobie Gabriel inside, somewhere, waiting for someone to realize what was wrong with him and help him.
Which leads me to my next point.
The writers only put Sylar and Elle together so that they can pull in fans, make Sylar a woobie, masturbate to their favorite actors, etc.
First of all, I keep seeing this, but using the word 'masturbate' in your arguments does not make you sound morally or intellectually superior. It makes you sound stupid. Especially when you spell it wrong.
Anyway, this is the one that really irritates me. I never really shipped them, or saw the allure, and I'm still not hugely invested, but I do think it's one of the best-handled relationships, retcon aside, that the show has ever had. This is why.
I've covered Sylar. He's so consumed with guilt that he doesn't know how to deal with it, he's desperately looking for someone who will see him for something other than a mindless killer. And if you accept the canonity of 3x08 [which is now part of the canon Heroesverse, whether you like it or not], Elle was the first person to enter his life after the murder of Brian Davis [or, for continuity's sake, Chandra Suresh] who smiled at him and was nice to him. She walked in, a complete stranger, and talked him out of suicide. Plus, you know, she's really, really adorable. It's understandable that he'd be at least a little bit attracted to her - and beyond physical beauty, like I said a while ago, she took the time out of her life to tell him that he was worth the oxygen he used up every day, which we've been shown over and over again since season one is something he craves.
As far as Elle goes, yes, Sylar killed her father, but she has so many issues beyond that. First off, when her father was alive, they did not have anything even remotely resembling a healthy relationship. He talked down to her, treated her like a child, berated her for the smallest mistakes, even those that lead to a broken arm and a half-sawed head. This isn't even getting into the fact that he experimented on her and erased her memory. When she found him dead, her reaction wasn't sadness, only anger at Sylar for taking away the only person she had in the world to depend on, fear at no longer having a constant in her life, even one that absued her like Bob did. She needed a new rock; she tried to find it in HRG, Claude, even Claire, but no one else understood her or gave a shit, in the end, what happened to her.
Meeting Sylar on the assignment [continuity, what?] was probably the first time Elle had ever had that kind of effect on anyone in her life. Growing up with nothing but her father's disapproval and the cold atmosphere of the Company, it was jarring to have Sylar be so grateful to her. She didn't know how to react other than to stick to the plan and manipulate his affections, which, of course, pissed him off a little bit, but it wasn't out of character at all for her to charm him like she did, while having her own private emotions that confused her and were ultimately pushed aside in favor of doing what HRG and her father told her to do. We were introduced to a sadistic, disturbed Elle, not an Elle without emotions and interpersonal needs, albeit broken ones.
Elle betrays Sylar, Sylar betrays Elle. They hate each other, blame each other for everything that's happened in their lives. But the truth of the matter is that they are both victims of the people around them, battered and demeaned and broken to the point that they have lost track of who they are. At risk of sounding cliche, they are the only two that can understand one another - which was the entire point of this week's scenes. Sylar has been thrown into a family that makes him feel special, needed, for the first time in his life, and has no idea that he's being manipulated; he's just trying to win the approval of his parents and brothers by being what they want him to be: a good person. He's trying to come to terms with what he's done, to reconcile his new goals with his past. Elle is completely lost, looking for something to take out her anger on, a way to get rid of the pain of her out-of-control power.
Elle attacks Sylar not just because she's angry at him, but because she's angry at her father for leaving her alone, the Company for making her into something she doesn't like, the world for being big and scary and impossible to cope with. Sylar takes it not just because he deserves it from her, but because he deserves it for every terrible thing he's ever done, and he knows it. Her attack is therapy for them both; they're not just getting over their anger with one another, they're coming to terms with all of their issues in a lovely, symbolic way.
And then, of course, Elle wants to die, and Sylar doesn't kill her. It's not because he's gone ~soft~, but because he sees himself in her, understands what she's going through because he's gone through the same feelings of rejection and helplessness. He realizes exactly what Arthur meant for him to realize - that skull-sawing isn't the only way to 'fix' someone [b'awwwww cheese]. He couldn't use his empathy like a normal person before because he had no idea what it was like to understand and be understood, but that compassion, for lack of a better word, was unlocked by a confrontation with someone with comparable issues.
So, that 'gigglefest?' That was Elle finding another person in the world that had felt as betrayed as she had and had found a way to push through it. That was Sylar realizing that he didn't have to kill anymore, that he could be 'good' and still be special. That shared realization reignited that bond they'd felt however many months ago, and the rest is ... just as planned by Arthur. Oshi--
Or, you know, I could be completely off. That's just my take.
Fangirls only like Sylar because he doesn't wear clothes very often.
Speaking as a lesbian who still finds Sylar's story compelling, I can tell you pretty concretely that that's not always the case.
Anyway, am I saying that the writing this season has been perfect? Of course not. It's been pretty awful, now and then. All I'm saying is that half the fandom isn't giving the writers enough credit. A character that could have been just another villain bent on being the most powerful guy in the world has been replaced with a layered character with real motivations and a very human core. And if you can't stand to see him be a hero, just remember: he's with Arthur. He's not going to be following in Hiro's footsteps anytime soon.
I don't know. Thoughts?
