Alan K. Henderson's Weblog

Time flies when you're blogging - had to start getting ready for work before I had a chance to complete yesterday's post.

The two funniest moments were film references - Sylar telekinesing the spinach can, in a sly nod to Popeye, and the imprisoned Bennett bouncing the ball in his cell in homage to Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. Adam's ironic fate of eternal imprisonment in a coffin was one of those "whoa" moments.

There's always a door opened to bring Niki back. If nobody ever finds even a trace of her incinerated remains, Hiro or Peter could rescue her without changing history.

If Bennett still wants to undermine The Company, he should seek Elle as an ally. He's already seen signs of her disillusionment. Best way to push her in the right direction is to help her regain her childhood memories of serving as a Company guinea pig, via a dose of Claire's blood. Stealing from Company stockpiles would tip them off, so he should somehow smuggle some in.

He doesn't trust Mohinder, so Elle is the only one who can get it for him. She'll do it because she wants those memories. She'd need some secret shared by Bennett and Claire to serve as a sort of password to let Claire know that she's working with Bennett and can be trusted. Of course, Elle might come up with the idea of seeking a vial of Claire's blood on her own without any prodding from Bennett.

The God Complex is a theme in this series, and it isn't the same in everyone who manifests it. I have come up with these categories, with examples from Heroes and (in italics) other sources. One may exhibit more than one of these complexes.

• God of Final Judgment. Subscribes to a specific utopian vision, and regards nonconformity with it as a crime against humanity that must be punished. Adam Monroe, Mr. Linderman, Magneto, Communists, Nazis.
  
• God of Power. Seeks infinite power for its own sake. Sylar, Voldemort.
  
• Bullying God. Super powers + anger management issues. Habitually uses powers as a means of emotional venting. Niki (as Jessica), Greco-Roman mythos, Anthony Fremont.
  
• Toying God. A variety of Bullying God who views humanity as a toy to play with. Elle, Trelane
  
• Micromanaging God. A self-appointed dictator over specific human affairs. Uses powers (often clandestinely) for enforcement. Organians, Q Continuum
  
• Micromanaging God, Super-Power Affairs I. A variant whose self-assumed jurisdiction concerns superpowered humans. Decides what relationship (if any) they should have with normal humans, intensely regulates the use of super powers. Bob, Ministry of Magic, Greek gods (excluding Prometheus, who stole fire from Olympus to benefit humanity, much to the gods' chagrin)
  
• Time Lord. Unique to those with access to time travel, a temptation to arbitrate past events in the world. Hiro (on occasion), Marty McFly (in the first film)

Harry Potter fans take note: the Ministry's initials spell MOM. Ah, the paternalistic state...

Update: Actually, McFly isn't an example of the God Complex. His changes to history were unintentional, the ironic result of trying to fix history. Star Trek has done time travel to death, and in a few cases characters have tried to play God with the past; the Borg Queen in the film and Kathryn Janeway (who was actually successful at it) in the Voyager series finale are two notable examples.

Labels: Heroes, Television