quote:Originally posted by Daniel Butler: This would seem to indicate that his power doesn't do something functional - ie, mess with their *mind* so that they can't remember - but rather something physical, damaging the neurons/synapses/brain structures responsible for storing a particular memory. This again makes me want to bring up the fact that he apparently has two completely separate and unique powers - the power of memory erasure and the power of power suppression. I'd love to see them explain how those two powers are related...
I always assumed the powers reside and are activated by the brain. In episode one when Mohinder is talking about the his dad's theories, he mentions that humans only use 10% of their brains (bullshit, but we accept it as a plot device) and he talks about the human soul (anyone else notice how he misplaced his vaguely Indian accent..? boy did New York change that guy) he says that the 'soul' is the brain. So if the Haitian has the ability to alter or damage physical brain tissue, it would follow that he could suppress the areas of the brain that are responsible for, um, power control/manifestaion... presuming that's where they come from in the first place, that is.
-------------------- "Brave men are vertebrates: they have their softness on the outside, and their toughness in the middle" -Lewis Carrol
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Yeah. I figure he generates a low-level "interference" normally, which can be focussed more narrowly toward one person, which is probabl yakin to synaptic disruption... And that he later learned to do more lasting damage, whether by altering the physical structure of the brain or blocking synapses with something or whatever...
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
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So presumably Peter, Claire and Adam can help restore the memories of anyone wiped by the Haitian just by giving a blood transfusion? This also means that Claire could have restored her own Haitianed memories back in season one if she'd known it was possible.
One of these days they're gonna write themselves into a corner with all this.
Daniel Butler
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I've also assumed the brain activates the power, but everyone's abilities are pretty specific (except for Peter, Emo God ) so I just don't understand why the Haitian would get lucky and have two powers from birth. I'm just going with the idea that they are both related somehow, in some...fashion...*sigh*
Yeah, well, if the series continues past the strike, they might indeed write themselves into a corner, and I'm not sure which would be worse.
Mmm, and, it just occurred to me that after Peter went off the meds to control his powers, he didn't go nuclear again. Same after he regained his memory. So he must have somehow learned to control it...if Claude was right, Peter can control any power he absorbs, if only he works on it and gets used to it. That was probably just speculation on his part though. Although, he sure didn't seem altogether surprised to meet a person with the ability to absorb other's abilities. In fact it was almost as if he already knew who Peter was and what he could do. So either the Company knew the Petrelli's kid was going to do that, or someone else in the Company (or elsewhere) has manifested a similar ability before Peter.
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quote:I've also assumed the brain activates the power, but everyone's abilities are pretty specific (except for Peter, Emo God [Wink] ) so I just don't understand why the Haitian would get lucky and have two powers from birth. I'm just going with the idea that they are both related somehow, in some...fashion...*sigh*
I'd say his power is to be able to alter another person's brain. Sometimes that means memories, sometimes it's a learnt skill or reflex (which is a kind of memory.) He doesn't suppress the power itself, just the ability to use it. I imagine if he wanted to he could make you forget how to swim, or drive a car or if he want to kill you he can make your brain forget how to breath or pump blood. Makes sense that even in 5 years gone he's the only credible threat to Peter (with the exception of Sylar of course.)
Daniel Butler
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I thought he was the only credible threat to Peter because when he was around Peter couldn't go all demigod on him, since his powers wouldn't work. I'm not sure I buy that he can just modify the brain - why would he let Peter remember how to use his powers if he could force him to forget how permanently? Like I said, it'd be downright foolish to give someone with that kind of power total amnesia but leave the powers intact. (Of course, if he CAN'T erase powers, he still did something foolish by giving Peter amnesia at all, so there you are.)
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Peter didn't know how to use his powers when they found him in the container. He was operating on instinct. He threw up a hand to protect himself, and was as surprised as anyone when electricity came out. I'm guessing the Haitian can block conscious powers, but can't tinker with autonomic powers, like healing and absorbing, without screwing up the entire autonomic center of the brain. Maybe he doesn't even know healers can heal from the effects of his power.
And Peter's slightly different because he doesn't heal automatically, he has to call up the sense of the person whose powers he is trying to use. Mommy Dearest knows he's a healer, and used her power to kickstart it.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
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quote:Originally posted by Daniel Butler: if Claude was right, Peter can control any power he absorbs, if only he works on it and gets used to it. That was probably just speculation on his part though. Although, he sure didn't seem altogether surprised to meet a person with the ability to absorb other's abilities. In fact it was almost as if he already knew who Peter was and what he could do. So either the Company knew the Petrelli's kid was going to do that, or someone else in the Company (or elsewhere) has manifested a similar ability before Peter.
Claude mentiones something along those lines when he first meets Petey... something like "oh, god, one of them... an empath"
So he clearly knows about it, we just don't know who the other empath/s are that Claude's met.
I'm curious about daddy Petrelli... notice how his face is blurred out in the photo? I think we'll be seeing him before long. (Flashbacks, etc)
-------------------- "Brave men are vertebrates: they have their softness on the outside, and their toughness in the middle" -Lewis Carrol
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Daniel Butler
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Peregrinus: I guess I wasn't clear; I know Peter didn't know he HAD powers, but he clearly didn't have the autonomic memory of how to *use* them erased. So like I said, leaving someone with those kinds of powers with no knowledge that they *have* them is foolish.
Also, it just occurred to me: Isn't it convenient that Suresh and Adam/Kensei both apparently have Type-O blood?
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Well, type O neg is still the most prevalent on the planet...
And I do think Peter only has access to his powers because his is an autonomic power. His autonomic empathy dredged up Claire's and Adam's autonomic healing at Mommy Dearest's "suggestion", and that took care of the rest of the damage. But. At some point, all the mutants' powers were involuntary/reflexive/instinct before they realized what was going on or how to control them. Yet when they gain control over them, that becomes a conscious trigger...
I think the Haitian doesn't understand the nature of things. Have we seen him permanently take away anyoen else's power? He probably did think that by erasing Peter's memory, he'd killed the power. I think his "interference", general or targetted, is him making people temporarily "forget" how to access their consciously-activated powers. And, like Matt graduated from passive telepathy to active mind-control, the Haitian graduated from passive interference to active erasure.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
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Daniel Butler
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I still don't buy that about the Haitian. The graphic novels show him erasing the memory of everyone in his village as a very small child, shortly after he'd learned that his father's power wouldn't function when he was around.
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"And Peter's slightly different because he doesn't heal automatically, he has to call up the sense of the person whose powers he is trying to use."
Not so. When he had that chunk of glass in the back of his head, he healed automatically when it was removed. He certainly couldn't have been thinking about healing, because he'd been dead for quite some time.
Which leaves the question : Why doesn't the Haitian's memory erasure heal itself? Technically, we don't know that Adam has the exact same power as Claire. But we know that Claire-style healing happens on its own ; it's done so in both her and Peter. So, why didn't Peter's memory come back by itself?
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We know that Adam's power of healing is not a concious of act of willing himself to heal either, as he was dead when those arrows hit him, and only healed once Hiro pulled them out. I wonder what Adam must have been doing to find out that his blood heals others as well. Maybe he was doing one of the blood brother pact things with someone and they healed when the blood mixed. Or maybe he went through some weird vampirism phase when he was younger!
Anyways I've finally gotten around to reading the online graphic novel. I hadn't realised there were so many of them! Anyways didn't Peter and Nathan's dad appear in one of them, and he seemed pretty powerless in that comic.
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Except that when Claude was teaching Peter how to use his powers, Peter had to call up the thought of Claire to heal after he fell from the roof. So either Peter's healing became autonomic, or the writers screwed up. *heh*
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
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![[Wink]](wink.gif)
) so I just don't understand why the Haitian would get lucky and have two powers from birth. I'm just going with the idea that they are both related somehow, in some...fashion...*sigh*
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