Line #28 YMMV/Heroes


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9	* AlasPoorScrappy:
10	** Isaac had been stagnating as a character before Sylar killed him, but his death and the lead up to it were handled well enough that many viewers were touched by his exit.
11	** Niki. As much as the character was hated, her death was still sad.
12	** Alejandro. Though general opinion was that he was a {{flat character}} whose main focus was his relationship to his sister, you still have to feel a pang of sympathy for him as he was unable to keep said sister from falling under Sylar's thrall and then got murdered by Sylar when he figured out the lies.
13	* AngstWhatAngst: Niki does not show much angst about being responsible for her husband's death.
14	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
15	** The theme by Music/WendyAndLisa.
16	** The climax of "Company Man" when Claire is trying to get closer to an uncontrollable Ted Sprague, and we see parts of the house burn down. Chilling and gorgeous music plays in the background, which eventually silences all the destruction and mayhem happening. A true CMOA if there ever was one.
17	** Anything involving Sylar's theme, usually played on church bells. The rock version of Sylar theme, even if it lasted only a few seconds, was a true CMOA.
18	** The music playing during "Nathan's" suicide in "The Fifth Stage". And the music playing during his funeral in "Upon This Rock...".
19	* BadassDecay: Toyed with and retconned several times with Sylar.
20	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
21	** Monica. Some fans hated her, others thought she had an awesome power (mimicking other's actions). Her short time in the show is also up for contention.
22	** Sylar is the epitome of this trope. You either [[EvilIsCool love him for screwing with the main characters' lives and getting away with it]] or hate him for [[KarmaHoudini those exact same reasons]]. His redemption arc towards the end of the series only added ''more'' fuel to the fire. Did he earn redemption, or was he too far gone?
23	* BestKnownForTheFanservice: This is that show where a whole load of eclipses, helices, and conspiracies to take over the world keeps getting in the way of Creator/HaydenPanettiere being all bouncy, cheerleadery[[note]] even though by the final season her character was no longer a cheerleader[[/note]] and indestructible, and Creator/ZacharyQuinto and Creator/MiloVentimiglia being all broody and [[ShirtlessScene forgetting their shirts]].
24	* BetterOnDVD: Keeping up with the many {{Call Back}}s and {{Continuity Nod}}s is much easier when all episodes are readily available. It's easier to keep up with the extensive backgrounds and how the characters are related.
25	* BrokenBase:
26	** The Nathan and Sylar fans exited in droves, baying for blood after the volume 4 finale. Those who weren't hopelessly confused, that is. Really, anything related to Sylar has this effect.
27	** Another case in those who wish it had ended after Season 1, those who wish it had after the second, etc. The fans can't decide whether the show they loved had been dead for three years, a few months or still lives on.
28	** Speaking of Season 4, there was a massive divide in regards to Claire Bennet's lesbianism/bisexuality. Some seemed to praise the decision, while others claimed that there was absolutely no hint of any attractions to the same sex in prior seasons, and even in Season 4, finding it a desperate marketing ploy and overall bad writing. Others claimed a lack of chemistry with her love interest and thought that a different girl would have worked better (such as her original roommate who was killed off after one episode)
29	* CrazyIsCool:
30	** Sylar is a completely insane serial killer, but he's so nonchalant about everything and can be quite funny. He's the only character who actually enjoys his powers and he's hilarious when he takes on a fake identity.
31	** Hiro Nakamura? The character who takes GenreSavvy to new levels and wanted to be a hero from the start, who manages to break Suresh out of a psychiatric hospital ''while'' his brain is scrambled. The only reason Sylar hasn't been defeated by him is that Hiro believes he ''has'' to let Sylar exist. And the only reason [[DishingOutDirt Samuel]] is a threat is due to having a hostage.
32	* CreatorsPet:
33	** Niki. Initially fairly warmly received by fans, she quickly wore out her welcome with her multiple personality subplot and causing the death [[spoiler:of fan-favourite DL. Fans rejoiced that she died, only for another identical twin to come back because the writers apparently felt that the show couldn't go on without Ali Larter]]. Exacerbated by reports of how temperamental Ali Larter was on set,[[note]]She reportedly threw a tantrum over being asked to simply lower her top's straps to give the illusion that she was topless in bed with her husband, only to have no problem performing a raunchy scene with Adrian Pasdar later on in production.[[/note]] meaning they had no good reason to keep her on.
34	** Arthur Petrelli. He was introduced as a blatant replacement for the other fan favorite of season two, Adam Monroe, and was instrumental in the Great Season 2 Character Purge. Despite quickly establishing himself as the single most powerful villain the show had seen yet (or possibly, because of it) he quickly became a case of OrcusOnHisThrone and sat around drawing paintings until the fandom made it clear how much he was hated and Sylar euthanized him.
35	* DieForOurShip: The fandom tends to have a negative reaction towards canonical love interests, particularly when it comes to Peter Petrelli.
36	** Nathan's wife Heidi isn't really ''hated'', but fanfic writers tend to marginalize her.
37	** Oddly enough, Noah's wife Sandra is generally well-liked even though she logically gets in the way of any pairings featuring her husband. Matt's wife Janice, however, is hated by everyone.
38	** Claire's second-season boyfriend West is just as loathed.
39	** Hiro's second-season love interest, Yaeko, is also disliked, partly because of how poignant and sweet the Hiro/Charlie romance was. It seemed that he forgot her too quickly: she was his first love in more ways than one, canonically, and yet Hiro seemed to have no memory of her during the feudal Japan arc.
40	* DracoInLeatherPants: Sylar. [[DaydreamBeliever Oh so much.]] The writers realized this, and tried to avert it in volume 4 by upping his villainy to eleven.
41	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:DL's]] death, not only was it sudden, but also because the season finale set up a logical way for him to die, and it was completely disregarded with him being killed by some random nobody.
42	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
43	** Ando, Hiro's best friend, is well-liked for his blasé personality that balances out Hiro's excited one.
44	** For that matter, Hiro himself! He was added as an afterthought when the creator's wife pointed out that few character actually liked having powers, and he's easily one of the most popular characters.
45	** D.L., a badass whose main concerns are his son and wife. He makes it very clear that he doesn't wish to abandon Niki, but acknowledges that she's dangerous for their son. [[spoiler:His death broke many fans' hearts.]]
46	** The Bennet family's son Lyle (who doesn't do much, but shows proper concern for his sister's wellbeing) and adorable dog Mr. Muggles also qualify, and the latter became an in-fandom MemeticMutation.
47	** Claude Rains, Peter's grouchy invisible mentor. Being played by Creator/ChristopherEccleston helps.
48	** Of the Season 4 additions, Emma is considered the most liked by the fans, given her storyline of coming to terms with her ability and chemistry with Peter.
49	** Sparrow Redhouse. Before she became a major part of the Graphic Novels Rebel story arc she'd only had one brief appearance, yet was still a character fans wanted to see more of.
50	** From the graphic novels, BrainUploading BadassIsraeli Hana Gitelman (who makes a few minor appearances in the show) and mismatched mother-daughter Company partners Connie and Penny Logan (an appearance-shifting {{Narcissist}} whose powers only work on other people and a BadassNormal ButterFace ActionGirl with a chip on her shoulder), none of whom appear too often but all of whom have lots of fans.
51	** As far as female characters go, the only one more popular than Elle is Claire. She's generally loved for being a perky little psychopath similar to Harley Quinn. She's generally considered to be one of the only good things to come out of Season 2.
52	* EvilIsCool: Sylar. A serial murderer who steals other's powers via their brains, but awfully charismatic and played by Creator/ZacharyQuinto.
53	* FanNickname: There are several, but highlights include:
54	** "Mystery Sock" for Isaac (based on [[{{Engrish}} Hiro's Japanese pronunciation]] of the vowels in an English title and name; "Mister Isaac" becomes "Mees-ter Ee-zaahk")
55	** "Fryingmon" for Nathan (based on, again, [[{{Engrish}} Hiro's Japanese pronunciation]] of "Flying Man")
56	** [[{{Moe}} Momo]], "Moe" (as in the Stooge), or Pretty-But-Stupid for Mohinder and/or Peter.
57	** Mohindrance and D'ohhinder, for the many, many times Mohinder steals the IdiotBall.
58	** [[TricksterMentor Rafiki]] for Usutu, the man Matt meets in the African plains.
59	** Pac-Man for Matt (based on Usutu's pronunciation of Parkman).
60	** HRG for Mr. Bennet (short for Horn-Rimmed Glasses, because of the glasses).
61	*** This was a canon nickname at least amongst the cast as Coleman referred to his character as such a couple times
62	** Senator Bambi for Nathan Petrelli. (It's the eyes.)
63	** President Worf or Worfbama for [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent the President]], because he's played by [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Michael Dorn]] and he's kinda sorta an {{Expy}} of [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Obama]]
64	** Pasbeard for the infamous, butt-ugly BeardOfSorrow sported by Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) in the beginning of Season 2.
65	** Nuke, for Luke the [[PureEnergy microwave boy]].
66	** Hiro ando Ando [[IncrediblyLamePun (bilingual pun)]]
67	** [[spoiler: Sythan for Nathan!Sylar.]]
68	* FanPreferredCutContent:
69	** Before the Writer's Strike messed things up, season two was supposed to be longer and darker - the heroes fail to stop the Shanti Virus from being spread and the resulting arc would have seen everyone deal with the aftermath, plus Maya would have served a purpose by sacrificing herself to absorb the virus.
70	** Before Creator/KristenBell's filming schedule got too busy, [[spoiler:Elle]] was originally intended to survive the events of season three and be the mother of Sylar's son in the BadFuture. Most fans would have been happier with that than with the final version of season three.
71	* FanonDiscontinuity:
72	** Some fans like to pretend Volume 2 never happened, and a ''lot'' like to ignore Volume 3 completely. They can get a bit irritated when developments from these volumes (like Sylar having Peter's empathy power, or the existence of Claire's flying boyfriend) get brought up in the less controversial Volumes 4 & 5. Then there are folks who pretend the show ended after Season 1...
73	** Others like to think Elle was never killed in Volume 3 and Daphne was never killed in Volume 4.
74	** The DroppedABridgeOnHim, ChuckCunninghamSyndrome, and HeelFaceTurn fates of several main characters in ''Series/HeroesReborn'', along with other disliked plot lines, cause many fans to ignore the events of that show.
75	** Some fans of the tie-in graphic novels don't acknowledge the culmination of the Evs Dropper plot line as canon. This is because of the number of interesting characters who get killed off and how TheReveal about [[spoiler:The Logans]] feels completely uncharacteristic with their prior appearances and inner thoughts due to the creator WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants.
76	%%* FauxSymbolism: The cockroach. Also the eclipses. And the single helix, er, symbol.
77	* FirstInstallmentWins: The first season garnered widespread acclaim. The rest of the series on the other hand...
78	* FranchiseOriginalSin
79	** The series was heavily derided in its later seasons for having [[MythArc long-term myth arcs]] that went nowhere or were squandered, stringing the audience along by cutting away from important action scenes or big moments, and featuring extraneous characters who did nothing to further the plot. Thing is, the much beloved first season was guilty of these exact same flaws. Specifically, characters like Hana Gitelman often showed up and then disappeared for little reason (besides [[AllThereInTheManual having more characterization and appearances in tie-in online comics]]), the big fight scenes in the heavily-touted 'future episode' either cut away for most of the action or are heard from behind a door, and the final battle (which was hyped all season long) is underwhelming and looks like it was hastily filmed in a single night. This was all excused at the time because the show was new and the premise still hadn't been fleshed out. By the second season, however, these problems (along with new ones, like {{romantic plot tumor}}s and Claire's [[DeathIsCheap "magic blood"]]) were starting to hurt the show's quality even before the [[UsefulNotes/TVStrikes 2007-08 writers' strike]] derailed the whole season.
80	** At the same time, there was the character of Sylar. Thanks to his "average Joe gone bad" origin story and Creator/ZacharyQuinto's great performance, he became an EnsembleDarkhorse as the villain of season one -- and this eventually turned against the show once the writers started pandering to Sylar's fans in an attempt to capitalize on his popularity. In doing so, they stripped him of everything that made him interesting and muddled his motivations to the point where he was acting strictly out of plot convenience rather than any coherent characterization, while also constantly giving him NewPowersAsThePlotDemands. The fans who loved Sylar early on turned against him, and then the show as a whole.
81	* HarsherInHindsight:
82	** After ''[[Series/HeroesReborn2015 Heroes Reborn]]'', watching Matt take care of Molly is really sad, since she [[spoiler:later kills herself to stop Erica.]]
83	** In 2018, Creator/ChristopherEccleston revealed he came to America specifically because Creator/TheBBC were trying to kill his career over his departure from ''Series/DoctorWho''. His first American work has him playing a man who narrowly survived an assassination attempt and spends his days as a literal invisible man.
84	** DL's [[spoiler: death]] is this in light of the revelations in Creator/LeonardRoberts' [[https://variety.com/2020/tv/features/heroes-leonard-roberts-ali-larter-1234854439/ essay for Variety]] where he revealed that Creator/AliLarter acted downright hostile towards him on set and that racism was a big factor in DL [[spoiler: getting KilledOffForReal]] at the start of season 2.
85	* HesJustHiding:
86	** Some fans think that [[spoiler:Elle]] is still alive, and Sylar only killed a shapeshifting Evo posing as her.
87	** Some people wonder if [[spoiler:Daphne]] really died from sepsis in "Cold Snap" or might have been revived after Matt left.
88	* HilariousInHindsight:
89	** In-Universe: In "The Fix", Claire is looking for her biological family, and Zach suggests hopefully that she might have a rich, eccentric uncle. "Great," quips Claire, "[[AllYourPowersCombined an uncle]]."
90	** Zach was supposed to be gay but this was not made known to Creator/ThomasDekker. He would later go onto play a gay character in ''Kaboom!'' and come out himself.
91	** Nathan and his ability to fly, after Adrian Pasdar becomes the voice of Iron Man.
92	** Hiro passes Sylar off as a doctor in "Once Upon A Time in Texas". Zachary Quinto plays a doctor on ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum''. [[spoiler:Said doctor is a serial killer with issues even ''worse'' than Sylar's.]]
93	** In 2006-2007, Zachary Quinto and Robert Knepper appeared in a [[http://i31.tinypic.com/2pyxpv5.jpg photo shoot]] together about villains. Two years later, Knepper would play Samuel, the main villain of Season 4.
94	** In a Season 1 episode, Claire's brother steals the tape Zach made of Claire surviving a fall and healing instantly. He threatens to "put the tape on Website/YouTube and make a million dollars''. Zach tells him "Website/YouTube is free, you idiot!" Years later, it became possible for [=YouTubers=] to monetize their videos, so he was probably on the right track.
95	** The image of Sylar holding Mr. Muggles becomes even funnier after Zachary Quinto landed the role of Spock in the ''Film/{{Star Trek\|2009}}'' reboot films, as the original ''Series/{{Star Trek\|The Original Series}}'' series had Spock holding the Alfa 177 dog.
96	** Claire's hometown Odessa is named after a Ukrainian city of the same name (which Noah visits in Season 2). Creator/HaydenPanettiere would later marry Wladimir Klitschko, a Ukrainian boxer.
97	%%* IncestYayShipping: The Petrelli brothers are unusually close despite their roughly 13-year age gap, and then when factoring in [[spoiler:Claire, who is Nathan's daughter]], there's a lot of subtext. Didn't stop Milo (Peter) and Hayden (Claire) from [[CastIncest briefly dating]], though.
98	* IronWoobie: Claire. Aided in no small part by her powers [[GoodThingYouCanHeal that make her almost literally unbreakable]], Claire never gave up despite all the pain and suffering the world heaped on her.
99	* JerkassWoobie:
100	** Superpowered SerialKiller Sylar had the seeds of sympathy sewn for him toward the end of Season 1 when we are introduced to his [[EvilMatriarch domineering mother]], probably the root of his [[FreudianExcuse obsession with being "special"]], going on to [[GunStruggle kill her accidentally]] when she attacks him with scissors. The season ends with him being run through with a sword, and the third and fourth were ''rife'' with revelations of ParentalAbandonment by his [[TurnOutLikeHisFather mass-murderer father]], murdered birth mother, multiple [[GambitPileup twisted and improbable]] {{mindscrew}}s sending him through the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor; that his first murder [[DrivenToSuicide might have been his last]] if Elle's [[LoveMakesYouEvil betrayal]] hadn't driven him completely AxeCrazy, and being [[MindRape manipulated]] by Matt Parkman first into [[TomatoInTheMirror believing he was someone else]] and then by trapping him [[MentalWorld in a living nightmare]] does not help.
101	** [[PsychoElectro Elle Bishop]] also qualifies. Essentially imprisoned for most of her life, a subject of cruel experiments, constantly belittled by her father, lonely, and socially oblivious, she's got a whole raft of psychological issues that spawned her love of ElectricTorture. [[spoiler:She loses control of her powers, is left in constant agony... and then Sylar murders her.]] Poor Elle.
102	* LauncherOfAThousandShips: In addition to Peter Petrelli, Sylar is the main one in the fandom. Check out this LJ community: [[http://community.livejournal.com/rare_heroes/ Rare Heroes]]. Look at the pairing tags list; Peter and Sylar have the most. Peter actually comes in as a close ''second'' to Sylar, when you count them up.
103	** Every fanfic is about Peter, Sylar, Claire, or Elle, usually a combination of two...or more.
104	** [[http://fantasticpants.livejournal.com/35297.html This Livejournal]], "The Heroes Slash Manual", applies this quality to Kaito Nakamura...after a fashion.
105	* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: At the end of one episode, [[spoiler:Ando is stabbed by Hiro in a case of IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten]]. Some fans realized that with his powers, it would be easy for Hiro to fake something like this.
106	%%* MemeticBadass: Mr. Muggles was behind everything. EVERYTHING!
107	* MemeticMolester:
108	** Chandra Suresh. It's been mentioned that Mohinder wouldn't have been able to run out and buy last-minute curare to dose Sylar with, so it's become a [[BlackComedy running joke]] that it was Chandra's, which he planned to use to drug the specials he lured back to the apartment.
109	** [[{{Squick}} Arthur Petrelli]] 90% of the time in his fanfic characterization, [[SarcasmMode because he apparently wasn't enough of a douchebag in canon.]]
110	** What about Sylar? Jeez, Creator/ZacharyQuinto manages to make him multiple types of creepy at once.
111	-->"Eat your brain? Claire... that's ''disgusting''..."
112	** Eric Doyle, the Puppet Master ([[AllThereInTheManual though that one is canon]]).
113	** Samuel Sullivan from season four qualifies. Let's see, he runs a carnival and plays into the creepy, perverted carny stereotype quite well. He has sexual tension with everyone and is constantly being all touchy-feely with his main hench-people, Lydia and Edgar, and really almost anyone who visits his carnival. Not to mention, he has Lydia use her empathy power so that he can stalk other specials and recruit them to his carnival.
114	* MoralEventHorizon:
115	** Angela. [[spoiler:Feeding an innocent woman to Sylar just so to get on his good side.]]
116	** Bob Bishop. [[spoiler:We learn he subjected Elle, ''his own daughter'', to so much ElectricTorture she snapped and went AxCrazy. When she was ''seven years old''.]]
117	** [[spoiler: Samuel has a killer one in "Once Upon a Time in Texas", when he reveals that the entirety of the episode, including his previous attempts at goading Hiro into changing the past, have all been a manipulation to force Hiro to work for him.]]
118	*** [[spoiler: He hits a new watermark in "Pass/Fail," when he wipes a town off the map after getting dumped. He doesn't even have an excuse so much as he's just pissed.]]
119	* {{Narm}}:
120	** When Hiro confronts Nathan Petrelli at a press conference. When Nathan brushes him off and drives away, he leaves Hiro in the dust shouting, "You not a hero! You a villain! You a villain! Villain!", rendered as "bi-ran" by his {{Engrish}}. In the DVDCommentary, Creator/MasiOka notes that the [[RuleOfThree third repetition of the phrase]] made it, ''for him,'' hilarious.
121	%% ** The scene where Sylar kills the woman with super hearing. She asks, "That sound, in your heart... what is it?" And he replies, ''"Murder."''
122	%% ** The scene with the rental guy in "The Eclipse, Part 1"... who the ''hell'' would ''ever'' react like that?
123	%% ---> "She filled me in pretty good, you serial killin' scum of the earth! ... I should kill you right now! I'd be a bona fide hero!"
124	%% *** There are disproportionately ominous [[ForDoomTheBellTolls church bells]] playing over the scene.
125	%% *** Sylar's bizarre breathy, rushed way of talking in that episode.
126	%% ** This may have been intended as black humour, but the scene in "Cautionary Tales" where Mohinder turns to Elle and asks bluntly, "Have you killed many people?"
127	** In Volume 4, Sylar flashes back to the day his father sold him and killed his mother. The music in the background and the ''Comicbook/SinCity''-esque color filter on the blood raise the {{bathos}} levels so high that not even Zachary Quinto's incredible acting talents can save the scene from corniness.
128	%% *** The lead-in to this scene is Luke telling Sylar that maybe it's a good thing he's repressed painful memories. Sylar responds, "No, it eats away at your soul!"
129	%% ** In "Six Months Ago," Sylar shrieked "It's the evolutionary ''imperative!!"'' as he whanged Brian Davis on the head.
130	%% ** Creator/SendhilRamamurthy, who plays Mohinder, seems to find many of his ''own'' scenes Narmtastic. He has mocked the endless references to his father's death and research; on episode commentary tracks, he frequently goes into ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' mode during Mohinder scenes.
131	%% ** In the Volume 4 finale, Angela Petrelli's inhuman wails upon discovering [[spoiler: Nathan's dead body]].
132	%% ** Sylar's [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum-style]] conversation with his mother in Volume 4.
133	%% ** Linderman waxing lyrical about pot-pies in a clichéd (slightly camp) AffablyEvil manner:
134	%% ---> "Voila! A pot pie. Wholesome, warm, healthy. That's, of course if you can live without the cream sauce"... [seeing Nathan pull a gun on him] "Now you can't have any of my pot pie".
135	%% ** Near the end of season 1, Sylar has just acquired Ted the nuclear man's powers. This is a big deal, considering the future paintings showing a destroyed NYC along with an exploding man. At the end of the episode, Sylar is playing with his powers as he gazes over the city. Then he says, "Boom." That's it?!
136	%% ** Sylar's taco line in the third season premiere.
137	%% ** From [[WalkingWasteland Ted]], a quote hilarious when heard out of context:
138	%% ---> "Why are you THINKING IN JAPANESE?!!?"
139	** In the earlier episodes, the sheer number of ways Claire managed to damage herself quickly reached BloodyHilarious levels. Yes, you can regenerate. Now ''stop sticking your hand in the trash disposal!!''
140	%% ** Nathan's beard at the beginning of season 2.
141	%% ** Peter's Season 1 Bangs.
142	* NeverLiveItDown: Arguably the most fan-derided moment of the series was Peter Petrelli abandoning his Irish girlfriend Caitlyn in the bad future of Season 2 after accidentally time traveling away from her. Maybe it was the Writer's Strike that derailed this and there just wasn't enough time to film a resolution scene but not even a mention or HandWave about Caitlyn in the following seasons just made the writers look incompetent.
143	--->'''Peter:''' [[SayMyName Caitlin!]] [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse CAITLINNN!!!]]
144	* NightmareFuel:
145	** "'''[[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope MY NAME IS SYLAR!!]]'''"
146	** The opening of "Collision" treats us to a scene of Claire, supposedly dead after the events of the previous episode, having an autopsy performed on her. It's exactly as graphic as you'd expect: She's cut open, there's blood and a pretty nasty view of her internal organs. All that is horrifying enough, but then her HealingFactor kicks in, meaning that she wakes up with full awareness of the fact that her chest has been cut open.
147	** The final fate of [[spoiler: Adam Monroe. When his ability to instantly heal is taken from him, his body remembers it's over 400 years old. In seconds, Monroe ages into a massive pile of dust. The worst part is the way his eyes are pleading for mercy even as they shrink into their sockets]].
148	* OneSceneWonder:
149	** Creator/SethGreen and Creator/BreckinMeyer in as a pair of comic book store employees who have the "best day ever" when they briefly get to help one of their favorite characters.
150	** Creator/JohnGlover as [[spoiler:Samson Gray, Sylar's real father]].
151	** Creator/ChristopherEccleston's memorable turn as Claude Rains began as an EnsembleDarkHorse, but since he never returned, he has evolved into a much-loved OneSceneWonder.
152	* ReplacementScrappy:
153	** Tracy Strauss for Niki Sanders. She was played by the same actress and replaced someone who was already a BaseBreakingCharacter. She's also a scrappy for anyone who liked Heidi. Really, the entire character is seen as an insult to the fanbase, especially to anyone who actually liked Niki.
154	** Janice was seen as a replacement scrappy for Daphne, despite the fact that she was with Matt first.
155	** Arthur Petrelli for Adam Monroe.
156	* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
157	** Most people agree that Peter Petrelli became ''much'' more likable after [[spoiler:he was BroughtDownToNormal]], which forced him to actually use his brain and drop the IdiotBall.
158	*** Superspeed knife fight! Shooting [[spoiler:Sylar in the balls with a nail gun]]! Okay, Peter, you're cool again.
159	** How about Hiro? Popular in volumes 1 and then deeply annoying in 3 and 4 due to his development from the first two seasons being rejected. Then redeemed in 5 due to his cancer and Charlie arc making him serious again.
160	* RetroactiveRecognition:
161	** Luke Campbell is [[Series/CougarTown Travis Cobb]].
162	** Alex Woolsly is [[Series/JaneTheVirgin Rafael Solano]].
163	** Becky Taylor is Creator/TessaThompson.
164	** Jackie Wilcox is Creator/DanielleSavre.
165	** Debbie Marshall is Creator/DiannaAgron.
166	* RomanticPlotTumor:
167	** West and Claire in Volume 2. This relationship was not one of the show's successful moves, not least due to West being the only person in the entire run who Claire had absolutely NO chemistry with, including Sylar and her UNCLE.
168	* RootingForTheEmpire: Sylar earns this for being less prone to stupidity than the protagonists (not that he's immune to the IdiotBall). He is also one of the very few characters in the show who actually takes joy in having freaking super powers.
169	* TheScrappy:
170	** Maya, the TooDumbToLive plague-creating "heroine" introduced in Season 2 became TheScrappy of the show in record time. Her entire lengthy story was a TrappedByMountainLions plot and had fans begging for her death at the hands of Sylar even before the two characters met. Here's a hint for the writers: If a character dies and is [[DeathIsCheap brought back to life almost immediately afterwards]], and the fandom is ''angry'' that the character is still alive... you know you've got a Scrappy on your hands.
171	** Another Scrappy on the show would not so much be a character but multiple characters played by the same actress. These would be the multitude of Creator/AliLarter clone characters. Once the first character ran her course fans were happy to see her storyline come to a close, but WAIT!! Fans were introduced to a concept that no matter how many characters played by Ali Larter die, there could always be another one in hiding, as her many characters have become a CreatorsPet. The only good thing about this Scrappy is you actually get to watch her die multiple times, though it is rendered bittersweet as you know she'll always return as Gina, or Brenda, or Cookie, or Lanora, or any other name and random power you can put on her.
172	** To a lesser degree, Mohinder fits this bill as well. While he's always been a relatively useless character - not for his lack of powers but because of his amazing ability to consistently trust the wrong people - he truly became TooDumbToLive in Season 2 [[spoiler:when he joined The Company to act as a deep-cover operative and bring it down from the inside, and ''then'' turned traitor on Noah Bennet despite having seen countless examples - both in Season 1 and Season 2 - of The Company being hopelessly corrupt and self-serving]]. Worse, Season 3 has paired Mohinder and Maya, which almost everyone can agree is a match made in Hell. EVEN WORSE, Mohinder suddenly gains Spider-Man like abilities and an inexplicable compulsion to steal people and encase them in cocoons. Maya missed an opportunity to [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap pull herself out of the Scrappy heap]] when she found out about Mohinder's new "habit". She almost killed him with her ability but Mohinder ''somehow'' talked her out of it.
173	** Claire's flying boyfriend West was also not well liked.
174	** Basically, Season 2 only introduced 2 well-liked characters: Adam and Elle, both sympathetic potential WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds characters. Of course both were killed but ''Heroes'' had a thing for killing well liked characters and keeping the Scrappys.
175	** You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who likes Bob Bishop. What he did to Elle alone is enough reason to hate him.
176	* SeasonalRot:
177	** Season 2: Half the characters had boring storylines, one of the more interesting ones was [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome mostly offscreen]], and [[TheScrappy Maya Herrera]]. The season was cut short by the 2007 writers' strike and acknowledged by the writers as inferior to Season 1. The main plot also required Peter to carry the largest IdiotBall in recorded history to keep it from being resolved before the season ever started.
178	** The first half of Season 3 was worse. The writers heard the complaints that Season 2 was too slow-paced and lacking twists. Their answer? A RandomEventsPlot and one AbortedArc after another. Fans could no longer say it was predictable or slow-paced, but the result was even worse.
179	** Interviews with the creators later clarified (though not necessarily justified) a lot of the problems with Season 2 that led into Season 3. Originally, Peter wouldn't have caught the virus and it would have been released, causing the bad future he foresaw. What was supposed to be the first half of Season 2 involved a lot of setting up for the second half; plot points that ended up being abandoned were originally {{Chekhovs Gun}}s (for example, Claire's blood was going to be used to cure victims of the virus, and Maya's power would have had some level of control over the virus). Instead, when the writer's strike happened, they decided to change what was supposed to be a mid-season finale into a season finale and took the story in a different direction when they returned.
180	* ShipMates: Peter, Claire, Elle and Sylar. It doesn't matter who's dating who, fans will likely ship the other combination.
181	* SoBadItsGood: The third season is like watching multiple train wrecks in superspeed. [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs While on acid.]] Quite literally too, in the case of the ending of episode 3.16 ("Building 26").
182	* StrangledByTheRedString: Matt Parkman and Daphne in Volume 3, because Matt saw a future vision of himself married to her, and started going after her BecauseDestinySaysSo. She even asked what they had in common. Despite this, people prefer Daphne to Janice, Matt's wife/exwife/wife. Them getting back together is kind of an example because she reveals the baby is his and despite her cheating on him with his best friend, he immediately forgives her.
183	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The series had a bad reputation with its later seasons, mostly in part due to its repeated under usage of these guys:
184	** Adam Monroe is a popular villain, especially due to his amazing powers, badass fighting skills, a twisted backstory, the potential to be the most evil character within the entire series, and the actor's physical attractiveness. What do the writers do to him? They unceremoniously get rid of him by having him forced to the main antagonist of the Villains arc's room and have him essentially become a battery power for him so that he would no longer be paralyzed. Then when he gets another chance at proving himself later on in the series, he gets killed again in an even more pathetic and lackluster manner.
185	** Elle Bishop. The 7th episode of Season 3 set her up for a HeelFaceTurn, only to abort it at the last minute. Then she starts a relationship with Sylar which seems to be going well until he suddenly kills her.
186	** Scott the super soldier from Season 3. He's given significant screen time in "Our Father", up to and including an explanation of his motives for participating in the SuperEmpowering program, which is a novelty in a show where characters do things for unexplained and inexplicable reasons. He is the first recipient of the perfected formula, neatly subverts WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity, and is all set up to be a big player in the finale. Then the finale comes and minor villain Knox unceremoniously snaps his neck.
187	** Ironically given that Season 3 was given the subtitle of "Villains", many of the newly-introduced villains fall under this. The German in particular was set up as a kind of street level ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, only to be killed off after barely doing anything at all (he opened a car door and cracked a safe. One wonders why they even bothered). Knox's partner in crime Jesse was set up in the graphic novels as having a much more significant presence than he actually had. And even Knox himself was originally meant for bigger things, as he was supposed to have a past with Matt Parkman with Parkman trying to keep him on the straight and narrow (a later webisode depicted this, but it was left out of the actual series entirely). These characters were all tossed to the side to facilitate the rise of eventual Season 3 BigBad Arthur Petrelli (along with the unceremonious killing off of Season 2 BigBad and BreakoutVillain Adam Monroe), a move that in retrospect was probably not for the best.
188	* Season 4 introduces Claire's roommate Annie who was a driven, snobby character who was seriously interested in being friends with Claire and help her with her future. Even though it seemed like she was introduced for the audience to hate, people wished that she wasn't killed off after one episode, especially when she was visibly upset when she thought Claire didn't like her. Some thought that she would have been a better love interest for Claire than Gretchen due to lack of chemistry.
189	* ToyShip: Micah and Molly despite them interacting only in the Season 1 finale. [[spoiler:Sunk in ''Reborn'' - she [[HeroicSuicide kills herself]] to stop BigBad Erica.]]
190	* TrappedByMountainLions: Thanks to the 2008 writer's strike, the second season was massively shortened and ended up having several plotlines that never tied to the main plot: Maya and Alejandro Herrera smuggling Sylar to the US[[note]]Maya was apparently supposed to be instrumental to dealing with the virus, among other things.[[/note]], Claire's relocation and meeting West, Micah living with Monica in foster care, and Bennett's standalone plot. Even Peter's amnesia while stuck in Ireland never fully tied to the main story. Tim Kring had to write a public apology for how unfinished Season 2 was.
191	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Noah. Really, most of his problems are his own fault, but he barely does anything to fix them. [[spoiler:His backstory is that his first wife was murdered by a man with powers.]] Fair enough, but it doesn't justify that he treats his [[spoiler:second]] wife and adopted kids poorly, ignoring them whenever possible. Not to mention he's responsible for why Gabriel Gray became the superpowered killer Sylar, but unlike Elle who saw good in him and wanted to help him be a better person, he pressured her into edging him closer into insanity and showed no regret for it. Every kill Sylar makes and every time he calls him a monster, he's conveniently forgetting he ''made'' him like that. When Claire is shot during a time she has no powers, he instead focuses on hunting down Sylar and Elle for it, ignoring her dying due to having no immune system due to a loss of her powers. He even joins Nathan's crusade to lock away all super-powered humans, despite having one of them as an adopted daughter he treats as his MoralityPet (she also happens to be Nathan's [[spoiler:own daughter as well, but she's granted immunity from this crusade and is thus not a target]]) and promising his wife that he'd stop hunting these super-powered people. This broken promise ended their marriage. Not to mention some of the captured people were his friends. It gets bad to the point where Claire should really stop defending him, especially when he's done things even she finds unforgivable.
192	* {{Wangst}}: Claire. Boy, she was bad about this for a long time during Volume One. Taken to ridiculous extremes in Volume Three, when her power mutates so she no longer feels pain and she spends so much time whining about not feeling human any more. Um, yeah, not feeling pain is a problem for normal people, since pain is the body's way of telling you that something is going to cause permanent harm if you don't ''stop it right now''. But for a person with a nigh-unstoppable HealingFactor? Pain is just an inconvenience. Not feeling pain and instantly healing is a GameBreaker of a combo. '''Stop complaining about it'''.
193	* TheWoobie: Save the woobie, save the world: Hiro is undoubtedly the biggest Woobie in this show. His father thinks he's a failure, his coworkers think he's either a loser or a lunatic. When he finally gets his friend to believe in him and go on a quest to save the world, he fails to protect people twice (the second time being a girl he fell in love with, whose head is brutally ripped open), and then loses his powers, narrowly avoids being dragged back to Japan, his friend gets shot, he sees himself ''DIE'' in a BadFuture, he has to kill a man to save the world. This is all just in Season 1. In Season 2, he loses ''another'' love, finds out his boyhood hero is an omnicidal ComicBook/RasAlGhul-style villain, loses his father, is attacked by Peter who he previously considered a friend and learns his failure to kill Adam Monroe is the reason his father is dead. In Season 3, he is trapped in a miserable job, has his desire for excitement cause him to lose a deadly formula, sees a dark future where his friend Ando ''kills'' him, is locked up by Primatech, mind wiped by Arthur, has to see his mother die, has his powers taken and is shoved off a building. Really, whole show is just one long string of BreakTheCutie moments for the poor guy. The fact that he's as close to a plushie in human form as you can get doesn't help.

Context YMMV / Heroes