Heroes / Tropes A to E

• Aborted Arc:
  • The entire arc about the twelve villains that were supposed to be the worst villains ever, but all the characters stopped caring after Arthur came back to life.
  • Knox said that all he thought about during his time in level five was revenge on Noah, the man that put him there — also dropped after his first appearance.
  • Then the Eclipse mini-arc, which was dropped almost as quickly as it was picked up.
  • Adam was dug up, because Angela said he was the key to everything; turns out that was a lie as well, since nobody even bothered looking for him after Arthur killed him.
  • There's also the issue of Peter's season 2 girlfriend Caitlin, who got lost in an alternate future that no longer exists. They kind of completely forgot about her after that, and Peter doesn't seem too concerned with getting her back. In an interview, one of the writers jokingly said that no, Peter didn't really care, then backpedaled and said that she was originally meant to be rescued in the second half of season 2. "But sadly that will never happen..."
  • Also, when it was decided that the show would continue following the central characters of season 1 (and not a new group each year, as Tim Kring had planned) numerous possible future arcs were hinted, but ultimately never came to be. Many of them can be seen in Isaac's paintings, such as one of Hiro facing down a T. rex (obviously, the show never had the budget to do that one). That one actually was wrapped up; right after stealing the sword, Hiro runs into a T. rex display in a museum.
• Accidental Murder:
  • The tension between Peter and Isaac reaches a breaking point when Isaac fires his pistol at the doorway where Peter was standing. Unfortunately, he fatally shoots Simone instead.
  • Sylar accidentally stabs his mother in the heart when he tries to wrestle a pair of scissors from her after she attempts to stab him with it.
• Action Girl: Claire in the third season.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Christopher Eccleston got to say "fantastic!", his Catchphrase as the Doctor.
  • One of Nathan's campaign ads in the pilot states that he served tours in Bosnia, Serbia, and Rwanda, and he mentioned his days in the Naval Academy in passing to Claire. Adrian Pasdar played a Navy pilot in Top Gun.
  • In the episode Run!, Hope (insultingly) refers to Hiro as "Sulu." Hiro's father is played by George Takei, who played Sulu in Star Trek
  • In the episode An Invisible Thread, Claire mentions that she thought Nathan was right-handed after he signs a paper with his left hand. Nathan is actually Sylar in shapeshift mode and Zachary Quinto is left-handed.
• Abusive Parents: Niki Sanders, Elle Bishop, and Flint and Meredith Gordon all had abusive fathers.
  • ...and Eden's stepmother.
  • The mind-fuck that Virginia puts Gabriel through "to be special" most certainly qualifies. ..and then there's bio-dad who murdered his biological mother in front of him when he was five.
  • Arthur Petrelli takes this to new levels, as he attempts to MURDER his sons. And has his granddaughter attacked by two thugs, one of whom is a psychotic rapist.
  • Luke Campbell mentioned that his dad was abusive and used to to burn him with cigarettes.
• Adults Are Useless: HRG suffers from this, especially in the first Volume. He repeatedly forbids Claire from doing something important to her, guaranteeing she will do exactly that. He is genuinely shocked and upset that his teenage daughter does the opposite of what he tells her on multiple occasions. It's mostly because he's seen one of Isaac's paintings, but if he'd only tell her that, things would be smoother.
• Affably Evil: Mr. Linderman. After spending most of Volume One as a sinister Ghost in charge of threatening Mooks, he turns out to be a kindly, grandfatherly old man who, in his time away from managing his criminal empire, enjoys cooking, healing cripples — and plotting nuclear holocausts. All to make the world a better place, of course.
  • Also, Adam Monroe. Admittedly, he wants to wipe out humanity with a super virus — all for the greater good, mind you — but he seems like he'd be a fun guy to go out drinking with.
  • In fact, this seems to be a recurring theme throughout the series: that, despite the name, nobody is purely good or purely evil. Even the permanent villain of the series, Sylar ( well, permanent only until the end of volume 5), shows signs of affability. Same goes with former Company boss Bob Bishop, crazy puppeteer Eric Doyle, and power hungry carnival owner Samuel Sullivan.
• Affectionate Pickpocket: Peter and Arthur Petrelli, though with powers instead of wallets.
• The Alcatraz: Sector 5 and, later, Building 26
• All Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks: Mr. Linderman
• All There in the Manual: There is quite a lot of supplemental material, since the series happily adopted using online content as a storytelling medium. There was an ARG mentioned below, several online-exclusive miniseries, and an ongoing series of comics. The latter introduce new characters, establish the (usually sad) backstories of existing characters, set up new subplots, and, most importantly, enable you to actually see the characters use their special abilities. Many fans have argued that the writing in these comics is consistently better than that in the series proper!
• All Your Powers Combined: Peter Petrelli, Sylar, Linda Tavara from the graphic novels, Arthur Petrelli, and Samson Gray.
  • Variation: Samuel Sullivan's earth-manipulating powers grow stronger when more supers are near him.
• Alone with the Psycho: Sylar and... well, anyone really. He did it several times with the Bennets and the third time actually succeeds in getting Claire's power. And back in the first season, Mohinder visits a powered human, unaware that the "Zane" he's speaking to is actually Sylar. The real Zane's body is stashed in the kitchen.
• Alpha Bitch: Jackie, Debbie, Annie.
• Alternate Reality Game: The Heroes 360 experience. Player blog.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Taisetsu na Mono" by AI is the theme song for the Japanese version. Mai Kuraki's "Drive Me Crazy" is the theme song for the third season.
  • In France the series uses Victoria Petrosillo's "Le Heros D'Un Autre." The Gallic opening title and the complete song.
• Always Save the Girl: Hiro trying to save Charlie twice despite warnings about his disrupting history.
  • In "Pass/Fail" this gets thrown back in Hiro's face, as Sylar rattles off a very shortened list of the people he's murdered since Hiro made a deal with him to save Charlie.
• Amicably Divorced: Subverted here since Noah and Sandra Bennet seemed like such a strong couple, but they didn't seem to be able to get along much after their separation. Sandra even knew and supported Noah's edgy career choice while they where married.
  • They seem to tolerate each other well enough for the sake of Claire in the episode "Thanksgiving", but are generally not on speaking terms after their divorce. Especially since it's been heavily implied that it was an Arranged Marriage.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: "Sythan"
• Amnesiacs are Innocent: The result of the above.
• Anal Probing: In the seventh episode of Volume One, when Lyle discovers Claire's ability to heal herself after stumbling upon a tape that she and her friend Zach made to demonstrate her ability, this forces Claire and Zach to chase after him to retrieve the tape. A freaked-out Lyle questions if they're both actually aliens to which Zach sarcastically responds, "Yeah, and we're gonna anal probe you."
• Anchored Teleportation: The expanded universe introduces twins Victor and Valerie, who have the ability to teleport people from one twin to the other, acting as each other's teleportation anchor. Their power helped a lot of Evos evade Building 26, but normally the twins don't like being far apart from each other.
• And I Must Scream: Happens to Adam Monroe between Seasons 2 and 3 and Angela Petrelli at the end of "Angels and Monsters"
• Anti-Villain:
  • Noah Bennet (a.k.a. HRG) began as an agent of the evil Company, who hunts down those with superpowers and either captures them or kills them. Bennet quickly gained sympathy due to his genuine love for his family, especially his adopted superpowered daughter. It was also revealed that many of the people he captured were given training to keep their powers under control and offered a chance to use them to help others (in the case of Isaac and Eden), and the only superpowered people he killed were those who used their powers to hurt people. He quickly moved into Anti-Hero/borderline hero territory at the end of Season One, after he joined forces with fellow Company prison escapees Matt Parkman and Ted Sprague in order to shut down the mechanisms The Company was using to track all the people they caught and released.
  • Season 3 gives us Daphne Millbrook, a professional thief who works for and with other villains, but is clearly disgusted by most of them, never kills anyone herself, and is eventually revealed to have been working with Pinehearst because its leader would otherwise take away her superspeed, which is the only thing stopping her from being crippled by cerebral palsy. Most of her villainy seems to have been born of guilt and self-loathing for how she treated her father and (especially) her dying mother. When Matt helps her come to terms with her past and reunite with her father, she does a Heel–Face Turn and literally helps save the world. Unfortunately, Daphne is shot while attempting to rescue specials kidnapped by Emile Danko, who later kills her by removing her from the medical facility, thus causing her wound to become septic.
  • For most of Season 3, there was also Sylar, who wants to be good but worries increasingly that he's irredeemable because the superpower that allows him to analyze and understand anything also giving him an unquenchable ''Hunger'' to cut superpowered people's heads open in order to learn how their powers worked. Eventually, he learned that he could copy their powers without resorting to murder and it was revealed that he could have gone on to be a nice, normal, productive member of society, had The Company (Noah Bennet in particular) not pushed his buttons so they could analyze how he was stealing powers.
• Anyone Can Die: The deaths of Simone and Isaac and the planned death of at least one other main character (Nathan) by the end of the series. (Not to mention all the potential main characters killed by Sylar.) As with Lost, fans have had to suffer quite a few "Oh no, your favorite character might die!" teasers. (It's a little easier to take once you notice that the writers only rarely have the balls to kill off popular characters.)
• Apologetic Attacker: Samuel is genuinely upset after he kills both Mohinder and Joseph.
  • However he seems to get over it by the point we meet him in the series as he's happy to kill hundreds if not thousands to achieve his ends.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: People are extremely skeptical about Hiro's powers, even if they have powers themselves.
  • The most obvious example is Nathan Petrelli, who flies under his own power to escape a kidnapping — and then treats Hiro like a complete nutcase just minutes later.
  • Matt (a psychic) is equally skeptical in the dystopian future of "Five Years Gone":
  Mohinder: Hiro Nakamura can stop time. Teleport by folding space. Theoretically, he can fold time as well.
  Matt: So you're saying he's a time traveler.
  Mohinder: Is that any stranger than being able to read someone's mind?
  (pause)
  Matt: Yeah. It is.
• Arc Words: The stylised RNA symbol that appears on almost everything surrounding the Heroes (it's also a combination of Japanese characters saiyo meaning "great talent" or "godsend"), "Save the cheerleader, save the world," and the Activating Evolution book written by Mohinder's father, just to name a few.
• Archnemesis Dad: Arthur Petrelli in Volume 3.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Played for Drama. According to Sylar, Angela's most heinous crimes are attempting to blow up New York City, attempting to kill her husband, and lying to him.
• Artistic License – History: In the episode "Four Months Later", legendary Japanese samurai Takezo Kensei turns out to really be an Englishman. It surprises Hiro but no one else seems to bat an eyelid, even though in 1671 Japan foreigners weren't just uncommon, they were forbidden in the country on penalty of death.
• Ascended Extra: Subverted with Scott, the Super-Soldier Marine in Volume Three.
  • Played straight with Noah Bennet, who wasn't even supposed to have a connection to Claire when they first shot the pilot.
• Ascended Fanboy: Hiro goes back to the year 1671 in season 2 and meets his hero Takezo Kensei, and they go on adventures together.
• Asshole Victim: The officer and his friend that kidnap and kill Jeremy. Samuel obtains vengeance by leveling a building the two men enter, presumably killing them.
• The Atoner: Nathan goes through this in Volume 2, including getting tanked and growing an uber-scraggly Beard of Sorrow, over his role in nearly blowing up New York City in Volume 1. He goes back to being a dick midway through Volume 3 and through most of Volume 4, though, with pretty much the rest of the cast ending up as The Atoner in Volume 4.
• Attending Your Own Funeral: Volume 4 ends with all the Heroes gathering together for the first time in the show's history to witness the destruction of Sylar's body. What most of them don't know is that "Nathan" is really Sylar after he was brainwashed into believing he's Nathan and assuming his appearance permanently by Ma Petrelli and Matt Parkman. The body being burned is a fake, a dead shapeshifter who died while mimicking Sylar's appearance.
• Attempted Rape: Brody to Claire. Subverted, though, in that rather than being stopped by the Big Damn Heroes or even the girl herself, the attempt fails because he accidentally kills the girl, and apparently he's not a necrophiliac.
• Audience-Alienating Era: Actually seen in-universe. Several characters who were last seen attempting to kill each other in Volume 3 meet again in the first episode of Volume 4 and act quite civil towards each other, with the apparent unspoken agreement to pretend that Volume 3 never happened.
• Author Appeal: Compare the sheer amount of blonde women against those with any other hair colour.
  • Also, check the heights of the majority of the main women. One would think Masi Oka had a line in his contract stating that all women who appear on screen with him must still be shorter even when wearing heels.
    • Making it surprising that he and the notably height-challenged Hayden Panettiere took so long to appear together.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Sylar's original power, Intuitive Aptitude, that allows him copy the superpowers of others... oh, and to repair watches (by intuitively figuring out how things work or where they're broken, which makes him a candidate for Cut Lex Luthor a Check). Also, Monica can do this with Muggle skills (Muscle Memory).
• Axe-Crazy: Sylar and, to a comparatively lesser extent, Elle.
• Back from the Dead: Claire (ALL THE FUCKING TIME), Peter Petrelli, Adam Monroe/Kensei, and of course Sylar (see Claire), all thanks to the secondary Disney Death powers of their regeneration. Mr. Bennet and Maya, thanks to Claire's blood, as well as Nathan, thanks to Adam's blood. Linderman was teased to be this in Volume Three, but ultimately he wasn't.
• Badass Family:
  • The Bennets. Noah sets the gold standard for badass on the show. Claire Took a Level in Badass in Volume Three, and single-handedly let the heroes loose in Volume Four. Sandra helps Claire hunt down villains in Volume Three and hide fugitive heroes in Volume Four. And even Lyle tries to brain the radioactive Ted Sprague with a baseball bat and even gets to take down Psycho Electro Elle in Volume 3.
  • Notably the Petrellis are clearly supposed to be this kind of family but too many of them are Invincible Heroes and villains who hold the Idiot Ball for far too long.
  • Micah's family was short-lived, but they had potential to be a really effective super-hero family like Micah wanted. In the Rebellion comic arc, they do become that family.
• Badass Longcoat: Sylar, Peter, Future Hiro, and Matt.
  • In Volume Five, Big Bad Samuel wears a grunge version of one. Edgar wears one too, in the Season Finale.
• Badass Normal: Mr. Bennet. And arguably Peter during the "Find the Haitian" thing. Unfortunately, in Peter's case, it didn't take. The Golden Boy is back to power mimicry thanks to the super-serum, though it's apparently a bit more limited. (Also, that would imply Peter had ever deserved the label badass). And as of Volume 4, it seems Hiro might be going this way too. He's certainly giving it his all.
  • Danko? I mean he throws a knife into Sylar's head. Pretty badass.
• Badass Adorable: Hiro, while still retaining an almost childlike innocence. Claire and Molly have the adorable part down cold, just not the badass part.
  • Claire arguably becomes more badass as the series progresses, and is unarguably still adorable. (Even when taking a pencil and going all Rachel McAdams in Red Eye on Sylar.)
• Bad Future: Once a season. (Note: Season, not Volume.) In a possible example of You Can't Fight Fate, pretty early in Volume Four it becomes clear that the Volume One Bad Future is turning into the Bad Present.
  • Likewise, Volume Five offers hints that Samuel may have played a hand in Volume Three's Bad Future.
• Bad Powers, Bad People Both subverted and played straight — with Walking Wastelands Ted (and those that copied his power) and Maya, the blackhole-producing Stephen Canfield, and Sylar whose power comes prepackaged with a compulsion to take things (and people) apart to see how they work.
  • A few episodes of volume 4 and the webisode "Nowhereman" indicate the same is true of creepy puppetmaster Eric Doyle.
  • With the Webisode series over we've seen that Doyle, while not pure evil as he first appeared, is far from a hero. Even when he does good things he does them in a bad way and he's creepy as hell while he does it.
    • With Volume 5 he's back to being evil and working for Samuel in a plan to kill god knows how many innocent people.
• Bait the Dog: Sylar thrives on this trope. Cake?
• Barehanded Blade Block: Sylar does this when Hiro takes a swing at him in "The Hard Part."
• Batter Up!: When Claire demands that Noah teach her how to fight, he starts her off with a block of wood.
  Claire: "What is this? Kung fu?"
  Noah: "No, It's baseball."
• Bavarian Fire Drill: "...and get us some coffee! Decaf!!!"
• Beard of Sorrow: Nathan Petrelli in Volume Two. General fandom reaction was Kill It with Fire - thankfully, it vanished after a couple of episodes.
• Because The Comic Book Says So
  "Kore wa ummei da!"^note "It's destiny!"
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: According to the online graphic novels, Benjamin Franklin had the ability to absorb electricity, which is how he survived his famed kite experiment.
• Berserk Button: If someone you had never met in your life that has no impact on your life and that might have only had one thing even slightly in common with you were to be killed, would you make a big deal out of it? Maybe not, but Samuel sure would.
• Beware The Cute Ones: Peter almost going all explody, Claire threatening Elle, Hiro's punishment of Kensei, and so on. Micah, the seemingly harmless kid genius managed to mastermind a huge underground resistance network that successfully fought back against a man with government funding and resources and a team of highly trained killers on his side.
• Big Applesauce
• Big Bad:
  • Mr. Linderman seemed to have emerged as the one true villain of Volume One, though Mr. Bennet and Sylar gave him one hell of a fight for the title for a while. Also, at the end of the first Volume, numerous mentions of Molly's "Nightmare Man" inspired many to believe that whoever it was would be the Big Bad for Volume Two. It was Matt's dad, an original member of the Company. However, he was quickly and easily dispatched in early episodes.
  • In Volume Two, it is revealed that Adam Monroe, aka Takezo Kensei, is behind the deaths of the original members of the Company, and had a lot more than that in the works.
  • In Volume Three, it was Papa Petrelli pulling the strings, although (appropriate to the title, "Villains") everyone and their mother tried to get in on the act at first.
  • In Volume Four, the governmental anti-super conspiracy took the role from the start. For a while, it seemed like Nathan would play the figurehead, but he was quickly usurped by Danko, who in turn gets usurped in a last minute steal by Sylar.
  • Tracy looked all set to be this for Volume 5 from an end-of-episode teaser, but then comes Samuel.
• Big Brother Instinct: Peter Petrelli towards Claire Bennet (even before learning she is his niece).
  • Nathan also behaves this way as Peter's literal big brother. They don't always get along, but when Peter gets into trouble, Nathan is always there to get him out again.
• Big Good: Angela Petrelli in Volume 3; Rebel in Volume 4.
  • Richard Drucker, an opponent of the Company, served this role in the Season 2 graphic novels plotline, but had no role in the main show's plot and appeared to be killed by the Company after a couple of appearances. The Volume 4 graphic novels show that Rebel was inspired partially by Drucker's legacy, though.
• Big "NO!": Several times, but most notably HRG in Volume One after Sylar locks him up in a cell and sets on his way to Claire. Also Angela Petrelli after seeing Nathan dead in the Volume 4 finale.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows:
  • Nathan Petrelli, whose signature thick brows have been affectionately named 'Pasbrows' by the fandom.
  • Sylar has large Evil Eyebrows, courtesy of Zachary Qiunto's genetics.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Several examples exists in Heroes.
  • The Petrellis. Dear God, the Petrellis. It's complicated of course.
    • Daddy was just this side of a psychopath, and was poisoned into near death by his wife.
    • Mommy is a cold blooded Manipulative Bitch who vacillates wildly from genuine affection for her sons to using them as tools for whatever purpose she needs.
    • Nathan will do whatever Angela tells him such as allowing New York to blow up, no matter what his personal feelings.
    • Peter, despite being the only one who'll stand up to her even momentarily, usually gets talked into going along with her.
    • Not to forget fringe members of the Petrelli family, Alice Shaw or more correctly the crazy aunt who spent 50 years hiding in desert soley because her sister (Angela) told her to wait for her.
  • The Bennets. Sandra seems better able to cope, but it's a miracle Lyle isn't in therapy with all the weird crap going on around him.
  • Not to forget the Grays. Sylar who kills a lot of people including his mother, Virginia (Sylar's mother) who isn't all there in the head and the psycho bio-dad who probably killed just as many people as Sylar including Sylar's mother in front of him as a child, after selling Sylar to previously mentioned crazy snow-globe lady.
• Bilingual Bonus: The subtitles can't always capture all the nuances of the Japanese conversations. Also, Hiro pronounces Nathan's name as "Neesan", which is the Japanese word for elder sister. According to the DVD Commentary, Masi Oka did it on purpose, possibly for comedy, or because Hiro looks up to Flying Man almost as one would an elder sibling. (Although he refutes George Takei's theory that he's calling Nathan "Neesan" to imply Nathan is Camp Gay.)
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The only hero who hasn't done any morally grey activity is Molly, and she is ten years old. Even Micah, who is about the same age, used his ability to rob an ATM and commit electoral fraud. And as the series progressed, all the adults have become darker. Which makes you wonder why the show is called "Heroes."
  • Black and Gray is especially apt. The prevailing moral philosophy seems to be that there is no such thing as good, only innocence/naivety. Everything else is varying degrees of evil, and the sooner a character embraces evil, the happier and more successful they will be.
• Blessed with Suck: Depending on who you ask, the entire cast.
• Blindfolded Trip: In "A Clear and Present Danger", this happens to the entire main cast of Volume 4 sans Sylar alongside a few extras and characters from the graphic novels (and as revealed there, even supporting characters like Monica and oddly enough, Nana Dawson) in a manner reminiscent of prisoners being sent to Guantanamo Bay. After being captured, not only do they have black sacks over their heads but they're also wearing prison jumpsuits while the sacks are adorned with blacked out goggles and earmuffs as they're being transported to God knows where by plane. The only upside is that the prisoners are not aware of their situation after their capture due to being drugged. They are however, groggy and barely conscious, only being able to move their heads and only standing up and walking when being led by the guards. The scene itself even puts a surprising amount of focus on the hooded characters in this part with several close-up shots of them, a whole scene of Claire having the sack over head taken off after being seen hooded, the hooded characters being seen in the background when the focus isn't strictly on them and a scene showing the entire process of them being processed to the plane. Though Claire, with the help of a recovered Peter does at least make some of them conscious again, main characters and extras alike, but by the end of the episode, not only is the plane they're being transported in falling with some of them still hooded and drugged (though this may have been for the best), one of them falls out of the plane due to the air turbulence ripping out her seat with her still strapped to it and still hooded and drugged. Thankfully, said prisoner is later shown in the graphic novel, Rebellion Part 2, to be alive and well (her name revealed to be Sparrow Redhouse), using her powers to cushion herself to safety. Though funny enough, her only appearance in the show and her first appearance as more than an extra both have her having a bag over her head. Security footage of the characters being hooded was also later seen in "Exposed" as a MacGuffin for the episode.
  • Tracy has the worst luck in this regard. Not only is she the first one to be captured (while in her bathrobe no less), she was apparently hooded and drugged for so long she gasped for breath once Claire takes off the bag over her head and undrugs her in the plane. And in the very next episode, "Trust and Blood", this happens to her again in the final scene, though this time she isn't drugged and neither is the sack on her head covered with blacked out goggles and and earmuffs. Unfortunately for her, she is redrugged and rehooded in the final scene of the episode. Note that Tracy is the only character in the series, let alone the volume, who has a bag thrown over head multiple times (other than Hiro in the plane (but even then, it was only one episode) and Claire (but that's one season later)). In consecutive episodes no less. Though in the next episode, it is shown that she isn't hooded and drugged during her stay in prison. In fact, they don't do this for other superpowered humans again, even in the graphic novels.
    • In "Strange Attractors", Claire has a bag thrown over her head again along with her roommate, Gretchen, and a few other girls as part of a sorority hazing ritual, thankfully for Claire. The two are then thrown into the trunk of a car as they're transported with the others in separate cars. Amusingly, Claire is more annoyed this is happening to her again even if under lighter circumstances. Gretchen and the others however, are clearly more nervous, breathing heavily and slightly shaking. Even when their seniors loudly closes a door behind them as the ritual starts, Claire is unfazed while the others are clearly taken aback by it.
• Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: Tracy Strauss
  • Note: Strauss' political party is never specified and her boss is said to have trouble with the far right.
• Bloodless Carnage: Tends to be subverted like woah.
• Blown Across the Room: Happens a couple of times to Sylar when Bennet shoots him.
  • Elle does this to Sylar by unleashing a powerful blast of electricity when he attempted to cut her head open.
• Body Horror: Sylar fell all over himself to get a new shapeshifting power, without realizing it had a few side-effects... like extra teeth, uncontrollable shifting, and mental instability because The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body. And let us not forget Mohinder's "Let's experiment on myself!" adventure. Scales, goo, and cocoons, oh my!
• Book Ends: Claire's Establishing Character Moment of her being filmed jumping off a large height in the pilot also closes out the series as she reveals her regeneration to the world by jumping off a Ferris Wheel on live television.
  • In the climactic scene of Volume 1, Sylar smirks "Tonight, I get to be the hero." In the climactic scene of Volume 5, he tells Doyle "I'm not like you. I'm a hero."
• Boomerang Bigot: A Fantastic Racism variant occurs in Volume 4, with Nathan and Mohinder. Mohinder, of course, had personal reasons for feeling that way. . .
• Brain Food: In the first season it is heavily implied (and even stated outright by Molly) that Sylar does this. Debunked in a later season.
  Sylar: Eat your brain? Claire, that's disgusting!
• Brainwashing for the Greater Good: Sylar.
• Breakout Character: Sylar definitely qualifies for this on so many counts. Initially supposed to be just the Book 1 villain, his popularity led to him returning endlessly.
• Break the Cutie: The reason Elle is a sociopath is because her father decided to take his little girl and see just how much torture it would take to break her.
  • The entire series can be considered this for Claire. The season 4 villain outright states this is his plan for her.
• Break The Gamebreaker: The most egregious being Volume Three's "Woah, wait, Hiro will just go through time and fix things! I will erase his memory and make him think he is a little kid again! Bwahaha!"
• Brick Joke: A relatively quick version occurs in "Pass/Fail". Hiro's stuck in a trial being put on in his mind to determine whether he deserves to live or die. At one point, Sylar goes up to the stand and lists off all the people he killed because Hiro let him live after saving Charlie. He gets to Ted's name, but can't seem to remember his last name. Adam Monroe, leading the trial against Hiro, goes on to make a speech. A few minutes in, Sylar finally remembers the name, randomly shouting out "Sprague! Ted Sprague!"
• Bring My Red Jacket: Claire, the castmember most likely to end up covered in blood due to her Healing Factor, wears a red cheerleading uniform for much of the first season. She manages to subvert Little Dead Riding Hood, despite constantly wearing red and having golden hair. After the first half of the first season, she almost never wears red again.
• Brought Down to Normal: In Volume Three, Peter, of all people. But it seems to have done a lot for his God-Mode Sue problems. And everyone during "The Eclipse" episodes. And Hiro, temporarily as well, in Volume One and at the end of Volume 3.
• Bullet Catch: Sylar has on multiple occasions shown the ability to freeze incoming bullets in the air Neo style. Although after he gained Claire's superpowered Healing Factor, he generally stopped bothering and just took the hits.
• Bullying a Dragon: Snobbery directed at the Big Bad that can level your house tends to be a suicidal idea. And apparently, Edgar has learned this lesson well. He starts a feud with Sylar, despite the latter apparently having quite a reputation amongst the superpowered community as an unstoppable brain-stealing murder machine. Granted, Edgar is Darth Maul and Sylar was a mild-mannered amnesiac at the time, but it still seemed like he was just asking for trouble.
• Butterfly of Doom: Overused as an analogy in Volume Three. It's even worse in Volume Five - so much so that the Big Bad is named after it. "The Butterfly Effect" hinges around a future character's presence in the present horribly messing up the future, with things getting worse and worse the longer he stays and tries to repair things.
• Butt-Monkey: Numerous Examples.
  • Matt Parkman has to be the undisputed king of this.
    • When the show opens, he's a joke amongst his fellow officers due to his constant failure to pass the exams to move up from patrolman to police detective.
    • He uses his powers to find a little girl who was the sole survivor of an attack by Sylar...and is immediately arrested on suspicion of being Sylar.
    • His telepathy reveals that his wife was cheating on him with his partner and - after they've reconciled in Volume 5 - it appears that she may have resumed doing so, but he can't confirm it because of his promise to stop using his powers.
    • He acquired a new superpower to see the future but nothing ever came of it save his having a lot of horrific visions and seeing his true soul mate.
    • Said soul mate then got killed before she and Matt could get married.
    • He was set up to look like a terrorist by Danko and a murderer by Sylar.
    • He lost his job at least once in every single volume.
    • He's the only character to defeat Sylar for good (twice!) only to have Idiot Hero Peter undo it (twice!!!)
  • Niki Sanders is a close second. If Matt Parkman was the King of the Butt Monkeys on this show, then Niki was their Queen.
    • She's stuck working a humiliating job as a web-cam girl to pay for her prodigy son's schooling and to pay back the gangster who she borrowed the money from in the first place.
    • Her powers caused her to develop MPD, with her two most dominant personalities being a self-serving murderous Black Widow and the other being a vapid party girl.
    • She committed herself to try and stop her murderous personality from killing her husband, only to wind up getting abused by the guards there and - ultimately - being unable to free herself from the influence of the gangster that was blackmailing her.
    • The later of her personalities indirectly caused the death of her husband, D.L.
    • She finally died in a fairly pointless Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Ted Sprague, whose radiation emitting powers caused him to unknowingly give his wife cancer, be hunted as a terrorist and finally get killed by Sylar certainly qualifies.
  • Maya, who killed her entire village save for her brother and countless other innocents also qualifies. Ironically, she's one of the few supporting characters that gets a relatively happy ending as she lost her power and is given the opportunity to lead a normal life.
• Cain and Abel: Peter and Nathan in the Volume Three season finale.
  • The Petrelli brothers subvert this trope in Season 1 - twice! First, in "Five Years Gone", and then in the season finale.
  • The Sullivan brothers in Season 4 - Samuel is Cain and Joseph is Abel. Samuel killed him in a rage after the latter refused to tell him the truth about his powers.
• Call-Back: Brought up in-universe in Season 3 when Peter hails a cab and it turns out to be Mohinder is the driver. They proceed to quote their very first meeting from the pilot and then grin at each other before discussing more serious matters.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Nathan and Angela; Matt and his father; Claire and Mr. Bennet; Nathan and Arthur; Claire and Nathan; Peter and Angela; Sylar and Samson.
• The Cameo: Several, but we especially loved Stan Lee's awesome appearance as a bus driver in "Unexpected" and Seth Green in "The Eclipse".
• Cannot Spit It Out: The show would probably be 40% shorter if characters actually shared basic, critical information with each other.
• Canon Discontinuity: There was a lot of bad ideas introduced in Volume Two and Three. Volume Four spent a lot of time undoing the ones that could be undone, and the remaining ones... well, they're just not mentioned anymore. Ever.
  • There's a few minor points in Season One as well, the most obvious being the issue of Mohinder's birth (first he was born before his sister died, then after).
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Oh, Nathan. You think you're so tough but you're an embarrassment to drinkers everywhere. The fandom will laugh forever at the tequila scene in "Into Asylum".
  • To be fair, he's been seen drinking heavily before and was fine. He did claim that he was a pro at drinking contest during his days at the Naval Academy...it's really more like he's just about 20 years out of practice.
  • Averted in the same episode by Claire, who has to pretend she can't hold her liquor since she can't get drunk.
• Cape Busters: Nathan and Danko's team of Black Ops soldiers in Volume 4, who are attempting to capture and detain every evolved human in the United States because their powers are too dangerous. Yes, even the lame ones. Except Sylar.
• Car Cushion: One of Isaac's paintings show Peter lying on top of a crushed taxi. It turns out that Claude pushed him off a building and he crashed into the taxi. He survived, thanks to having Claire's regeneration, but was royally pissed off.
• Car Fu: Claire's revenge against Brody is to crash his car at full speed straight into a wall. The accident left him paralyzed.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Knox in Volume 3, mainly because his Start of Darkness backstory got cut from the Volume 3 flashback episode. It is still available online and on the Season 3 DVD, however.
• Cast as a Mask: Stuntman Ian Quinn plays Sylar before his face and backstory are fully revealed in the eighth episode. From then on out, he's played by Zachary Quinto.
• Cast from Hit Points: Hiro gets a weakened version of his power back from Baby Touch And Go's power, only to find out that every time he uses it takes a toll on his body and brain and is slowly killing him. This has been retconned to the power itself taking a toll on the body, as Samuel's time-traveling buddy Arnold demonstrates.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The show has about a dozen main characters, all but two of whom are male. And most of them are very easy on the eyes.
• Catchphrase: "YATTA!"
  • And variations on "I can be a hero!"
  • "My name is Claire Benett, and that was attempt number __."
• Ceiling Corpse: This is how Mohinder is revealed to Peter Petrelli.
• Celebrity Paradox: Hiro is a huge Star Trek fan. His father is played by Sulu.
  • Uhura shows up as well, playing Nana Dawson.
  • One has to wonder what Hiro's reaction would be to the new films, considering who plays Spock...
• Character Name Alias: We never do learn "Claude"'s real name.
  "I'm the Invisible Man. I'm Claude Rains."
• Characterization Marches On: Most notable with Ando, whose Stalker with a Crush behavior towards Niki was gradually dropped as he gained popularity.
• Chaste Hero: Past-Noah manages to refuse the advances of a beautiful woman who he was working with at the time.
• Cheek Copy: A former Yamagato employee considers suicide after being fired for drunkenly doing this at an office party. As Hiro tries to prevent from him doing this by going back in time, each time results in the same thing at different times. After 47 times, Hiro finally gives up and talks to the man.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Half-way through Season 1, Nathan teaches Hiro the correct pronunciation of "villain". Ten episodes later, Hiro is using the word to great effect - on Nathan.
  • The last 9th Wonders comic book is needed for a Plot Coupon in Volume Three. Unfortunately, the author died. But wait! He gave his sketchbook to an anonymous bike messenger back in Volume One...
  • At the beginning of the series, Angela gets busted by the police for shoplifting socks, which perplexes her sons and seems out of character for her, especially as the audience gets to know her better. In the Volume Four episode "1961", the reason is finally revealed: whenever Angela feels lost, she steals socks to remind herself of her sister, her goals, and her purpose (It Makes Sense in Context).
  • In the third episode of Season 3, during Angela Petrelli's reign of babymomma-ing Sylar, the superpowered serial killer was given the ability of clairsentience by a hapless mook. Didn't seem to do much until the middle of Volume 4, when Sylar learns the fate of his true parents in the dilapidated cafe, and even further still in Volume 5, when Angela gives him a box of Nathan's belongings (as Sylar has shapeshifted into Nathan) which triggers "Nathan's" memories of a young girl's murder back when he was a teen.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
  • Monica was never seen or mentioned again after the season 2 finale. However, what she did during season 3 was revealed in some graphic novels following Micah.
  • Hana Gitelman - though the graphic novels do their best to explain what happened to her.
  • Zach, Claire's friend in Season 1, also caught this syndrome. Admittedly, Claire permanently left his town four episodes after his last appearance, and Thomas Dekker had other commitments, but it's still a little jarring how he's never even mentioned again.
  • There's also Caitlin, who was never mentioned again past season 2.
  • Anyone remember Lyle, Claire's brother? Don't worry, neither do her parents. When Claire's in college, her mother, mother's boyfriend, and HRG, and HRG's sort of mistress, all have a Thanksgiving with Claire, but there's no Lyle in sight. Lampshaded later on in this exchange where Sylar remembers the name of Claire's dog over Lyle:
    Sylar: Everybody dies. Well, almost everybody. Papa Petrelli, Mama Bennet, Mr. Muggles. What's your brother's name, Larry?
    Claire: Lyle.
    Sylar: Lyle, right. He's gonna die too.
• Circus of Fear: Season five season opened with the role of primary antagonists falling on a group of carnies, led by a man named Samuel who injected ink into people and manipulated it inside their bodies along with creating earthquakes and manipulating earth. In the end it turns out this is a subverted trope as the carnival was a protected home for people with powers where they could openly be themselves. Most of the carnies aren't really evil, just misguided by Samuel. He was manipulating them to give him more power. The carnies were just looking for an safe haven to openly use their abilities and earn a living.
• *Click* Hello: Done at its most badass when Thompson gets the drop on Matt Parkman this way and taunts his telepathy by saying, "What am I thinking, Parkman?" Then Mr. Bennet gets the drop on Thompson by doing this and answers for Matt by saying "Your last thought." And shoots him.
• Cliffhanger Copout: A number of cliffhangers would pique viewers' interest that one thing would happen and then would give them something entirely different at the start of the next episode. The episode "Truth & Consequences" from Volume 2, for example, ends with Hiro charging at Peter, who refuses to believe Hiro's claims that Adam Monroe is dangerous and is even willing to protect him, suggesting that the two characters were going to fight each other. The beginning of the following episode, "Powerless," shows Hiro, after his charge, deciding to just teleport around Peter and try and talk to him some more to convince him that Adam is evil.
• Coconut Superpowers: The show that inspired the trope. Fortunately, the budget seems to finally allow for more "showboating" beginning in Volume Three.
• Code Name: The Haitian was only finally referred to by his real name in Volume 5.(It's René)
  • Notable in that suddenly EVERYONE who's ever met him, even briefly, knows who he is, despite always referring to him as the Haitian before that point.
• Color Wash: Most notable in the Texas and New York sequences. The former have a warm golden glow, while the latter favour Unnaturally Blue Lighting.
• Combat Pragmatist: Noah Bennet and Takezo Kensei.
• Combined Energy Attack: An interesting inversion in Volume 5. It's been revealed that Big Bad Samuel Sullivan's Earth Bending ability is powered by the presence of evolved humans. It's strongly hinted that if he gathers enough followers at the Carnival, he'd gain the power to split the Earth in half.
  • Which suggests that the Volume 3 Bad Future has not been averted...
    • Or at least heavily implies that Samuel may have been the cause since his power is amplified by the presence of other Specials and the Volume 3 future had powers readily available to the public via the induction serum.
• Comatose Canary
• Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: Sylar in Claire's house.
• Comic-Book Time: Bizarrely inverted. By the third Volume a lot of time seems to have been added to the timeline!
• Comic Books Are Real: Ninth Wonders, a comic book series that features frequently in the plot. Justified in that the author has well, had precognitive powers.
• Compelling Voice: Eden.
• Conspiracy Redemption: Several agents of the Company, most notably Hana Gitelman and Donna Dunlap.
• Contagious Powers: The only remaining Muggle main character is Noah Bennet.
• Conveniently Coherent Thoughts: Generally the case with Matt Parkman's telepathy.
• Cooldown Hug: "Nathan? I need you to fight it..."
  • Done literally when Tracy, in full freakout mode over her ability going haywire, accidentally freezes Claire and breaks off her foot when Claire tried to calm her down.
• The Corpse Stops Here: Twice.
• Cosmic Deadline: Most notable during volume one (season one) and volume two (season two). For the former volume, even with a twenty-three episode story arc, the last three episodes's pacing noticeably sped up to the point of distraction. Events fell together quicker than usual, Idiot Ball after Idiot Ball got tossed around to make the characters move around improbably fast, and even the long awaited final confrontation teased over the course of the season ended far too fast. Tim Kring stated that the production end ran out of time and money to let the plot properly develop, but sought to avoid such scenarios for the next season. Alas, that didn't quite happen, thanks to the writer's strike affecting production, which forced the creators to avert their initial plans.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: Sylar painting the future in his mother's blood. Sylar cutting his name into his forearm while he was having his shapeshifting identity crisis. Sylar also leaves a note on the wall: "Sylar was here" in his victim's blood also during the identity crisis.
• Crucified Hero Shot: Isaac gets one of these◊ when Sylar kills him near the end of Season One. For extra credit, he's a skinny, long-haired, olive-skinned dude with a bit of facial hair (in other words, he Looks Like Jesus), and after his death looks like he's wearing a particularly gruesome crown of thorns.◊
  • Happens to Nathan/Sylar twice in a single episode. Sorta.
• Cult: The Sullivan Bros. Carnival is run like one, complete with references to "the family," religious trappings, isolation, physical labor for no pay, and, of course, a charismatic leader with self-proclaimed prophetic abilities (which, unlike in real life, happen to be real).
• Curse Cut Short: Plenty, the best for many people being when Claire wakes up on the autopsy table...
  Claire: Holy sh— *smash cut to black screen and TO BE CONTINUED...
  • Hiro...YOU SON OF A BI....
• Cursed with Awesome: Claire's healing powers, whilst meaning she'll have a long life, mean she can't get drunk!
• Cut Short: The final scene sets up a Season 5 (Volume 6). But the low ratings made NBC think otherwise.
• Cymbal-Banging Monkey: One of Baby Touch-n-Go's toys.
• Danger Takes A Back Seat: Sylar pulls this on Danko in Volume 4.
• Daydream Surprise: A few in Volume 5 (season 4).
• Dead Man Writing: Hiro's father leaves him one at the beginning of Season 3.
• Dead Star Walking: Scott, the Pinehearst Marine played by Chad Faust.
• Death Glare: deployed by Nathan in Season 1 whenever Peter proposes, says or does something especially dumb◊. Subsequently, it's well demonstrated in Trust And Blood when Danko threatens Claire with a gun - Nathan skins him alive with a glare before ordering Claire off home◊. Also used to good effect in Shades Of Gray, when Danko defenestrates Senator Skyboy from the nth floor of their government office building. Nathan glares every insult in the BOOK at him before booming off. Essentially, this is Nathan's default look when he has to deal with his mother's or Danko's machinations or with people like Peter, Hiro and Parkman.
  • It seems to be genetic, with Ma Petrelli also being more than able to cut someone down to about an inch tall with a poison look when she deems it necessary◊.
• Destination Defenestration: Jessica throws Matt out a window in Volume 1. Sylar does this to Peter in Volume 3. And Danko to Nathan in Vol 4.
  • Not to mention what happens to Claire's peppy new roommate in Volume 5 (season 4), in what's initially assumed to be a suicide. When talking about it, Claire's friend Gretchen seems strangely pleased by the opportunity to use "defenestrated" in a sentence.
• Destroy the Product Placement: Subverted. A Nissan Versa remained untouched during a gunfight.
• Destructive Romance: Sylar and Elle. They honestly loved each other but are far too messed up in the head. Sylar ends up killing her because Bennet's word made him give up on himself and believe that there was no way they could have a happy ending.
• Deus Exit Machina: The Haitian, whose power is to block other people's powers. Although he is the one person who could actually kick Sylar's ass rather easily, he is seldom around when needed.
  • Similarly, Matt Parkman is kept well away from the climactic battles in Volumes Three, Four, and Five, since his burgeoning Psychic Powers would allow him to just make the bad guys surrender (or worse, if he were in a bad mood).
• Diabolus ex Machina
• Died During Production: In-universe with Isaac, although it doesn't seem to stop him. Even after he died characters have found and followed eight unfulfilled paintings, a year's worth of comic issues, and one of his sketchbooks. The same can be said for Mohinder's father and his writings.
• Die or Fly
• Differently Powered Individual: The show generally avoids using a general term for its supers, and they are mainly referred to vaguely as "people like me" by those with powers or "individuals with abilities" by those without. The Company seems to officially refer to them as "specials", although this was mostly in the online comics. Adam also used the term "specials" to describe powered humans. Danko started using the term too, so it seems to have become the show's "official" word for people with powers.
• Dinner and a Show: In the episode "Thanksgiving."
• Discard and Draw: Peter lost his ability in Volume 3, and regained a weakened version — the ability to copy the power of the last person he touched—at the end of the season. This does wonders for his intelligence, as the writers no longer need to glue the Idiot Ball to his hands to stop him being a gamebreaker.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Mr. Bennet to Mr. Linderman in Volume One, Nathan Petrelli to Emile Danko in Volume Four.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Samuel goes to New York City and decides to visit the mansion where he lived as a boy, and asks to have a look around. The new owner, with some condescension, turn him down since they're in the middle of a fancy dinner party, and then everyone in the house laughs when he returns. So he destroys the whole place by creating a massive sinkhole underneath it, killing three of the party-goers in the process.
  • And then he wipes out an entire town and kills hundreds because Vanessa refuses to be with him and a waitress asks him what's wrong.
  • There's also the fact that he had the Caimen Police Department demolished with the police still inside because the deputy and several of his men had a kid who determines life and death dragged to death as a lynch execution.
    • They probably had it coming
  • Staging a kidnapping of Claire for Debbie to witness and report that makes her look like she's lost her mind because she was a bit of a bitchy head cheerleader. She gets sent away for a while.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Weaponized by Sylar as he seduces Maya in order to throw her off the fact that he had just murdered her brother minutes earlier.
• Distressed Dude: Peter Petrelli in a container, Nathan Petrelli in Haiti, Hiro on the loading trolley at the beginning of Volume 5.
• The Ditz: Hiro, in a lovable fashion, though he matures a bit in later episodes and especially in the second Volume.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Volume Four.
• Double Vision: Peter interacts with himself from the exposed ability future. Hiro does this twice with both the past version and an alternate future terrorist version of himself.
• Dramatic Curtain Toss: Isaac's paintings
• Dramatic Unmask:
  • Claire is unmasked in front of Nathan in A Clear and Present Danger as one of the hooded prisoners at the airport. Fortunately for her, Nathan lets her go giving her the opportunity to ride the plane and try to free the prisoners.
  • In the next episode, Trust And Blood, at the end of the episode, Tracy is hooded yet again after her recapture, though not drugged as she is kept in a van for Nathan to talk to her. Unfortunately for Tracy, she's rehooded and redrugged as she begs Nathan to let her go in the final scene.
• Dressing as the Enemy:
  • Peter is all set to try this after knocking out one of the Black Ops agents, until Tracy points out to him what a stupid idea it is. They still put on the uniforms anyway because the orange jumpsuits give them away as fugitives and why say no to free Kevlar?
  • Sylar sneaks up on Danko like this.
  Danko: "How the hell did you get in here?"
  Sylar: "Well, you’d be amazed what you can do with a lifted I.D. badge, a four-dollar tie, and a West Baltimore accent."
  • Hiro also does this when he and Ando try to shut down building 26.
• Drinking Contest: Claire and Nathan flee to Mexico and in order to get some money to return home, participate in one. Despite Nathan's claims that he's been a pro at this since his Navy days, he's knocked out early in the contest and Claire has to fake her way through in order to get the money.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Simone, DL, Caitlin, Adam Monroe, Bob, Usutu — though he got better, maybe — Scott, Knox, Nathan...
  • Danko. He survives the entirety of Volume 4, despite the fact that every single person wants him dead. He is back for Volume 5, and he is building up to retaining his recurring character status. He even narrowly avoided death at the hands of Tracy. Not even a minute later, Knife Guy comes in and slices him up, killing him before he even knows what's going on.
  • DL was probably the worst example. Everyone else was killed onscreen. DL was shown dead with no explanation until the 8th episode of the season and the way he was killed by someone with no powers (who is not Bennet) just seemed like an excuse to get rid of him.
• The Dulcinea Effect:
  • Both Hiro (unsurprisingly) and Peter Petrelli (even more unsurprisingly given his carriage of the Idiot Ball throughout Volume Two) fall under this effect.
  • In Volume Three, Matt is fawning over a thief with Super-Speed he just met yesterday, all because he had a psychic vision of them being married in the future.
  • Hilariously subverted by Hiro during his introduction to Daphne. Rather than assume she's a complex human being with a complex motivations, he likens Ando and he to Batman and Robin and then refuses to refer to her as anything but "Nemesis" or "Catwoman" afterwards. He quite literally gets too caught up in assuming she's evil to make any sort of judgement call on her.
  • Mohinder makes a series of bad choices for Molly's sake beginning practically seconds after meeting her, but she's a Heartwarming Orphan with only him and Matt looking out for her in all the world, so it really doesn't even crack the top ten of all his bad decisions.
• Dye or Die: Claire in "Five Years Gone"
• Dying to Be Replaced: Arthur Petrelli becomes the new Big Bad by murdering the previous season's Big Bad, Adam Monroe. Of course, Sylar eventually reasserts himself.
• Dysfunction Junction
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • In the pilot episode, Mohinder has more of an Indian accent. After that, he has a sort of British Received Pronunciation accent, all the time. Except in one episode which uses footage of him talking from the pilot episode for a flashback... in spite of the fact you'd have thought his previous accent had simply been retconned out of existence, since his post-pilot accent is present in flashbacks that take place chronologically prior to the pilot. Oh, well.
  • Title cards used a completely different font in the first three episodes.
• Earth-Shattering Poster
• Easy Amnesia: Peter Petrelli at the start of Volume Two. (Actually more of a Laser-Guided Amnesia, but that fits too.)
  • Sylar, too. But that definitely doesn't overlap with Laser-Guided Amnesia.
• Empty Fridge, Empty Life: In Season 4, it's shown that after Noah and Sandra divorced, his apartment's fridge is constantly empty and he eats cereal because there was nothing left and he's burnt his other food. Claire regularly helps him out until Lauren re-enters his life.
  • In a variation, Peter's fridge is also shown to be rather empty in Season 4, but this is because he's such a workaholic that he forgets to buy groceries.
• Enemy Mine: The show is very fond of this trope.
  • Part of Volume Three had Noah Bennet and Sylar teaming up. It didn't work out so well.
  • The Volume Three finale, where Bennet frees all the Level 5 supervillains to help fight Sylar. They all last about 3 minutes, tops.
  • Sylar is pretty damn good at getting mortal enemies to drop their differences in order to team up and stop him from Taking Over The World (of course.) The Season 1 finale basically had all the desperate characters coming together to put the smack down on Sylar before he could nuke New York to become President of the United States. Though granted, that was shown to be a future result of the nuke and not his actual motivation. And, in the Volume 4 finale, Bennet and Danko team up to stop Sylar from (again) becoming President of the United States... which lasts for about 5 minutes, until Danko decides to backstab Bennet just for the hell of it.
  • Used in the Volume 5 opener, when Bennet and Tracy quasi-team up to get Danko off her case - resulting in Danko being swiss-cheesed by Edgar five seconds later.
  • In a twist, as of Volume 5, Sylar and Peter seem to have teamed up, though Sylar is trying to be good again. It seems like it might take.
    • Being trapped for five years in your own mind to wallow in your guilt will drastically change one's outlook on life, especially if your only company is your more compassionate and moral archnemesis.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: The gang that forms out of the Level 5 escapees.
• Everybody Lives: In the "Redemption" season finale, the Heroes manage to stop Samuel's plot to destroy New York City without causing or allowing a single death; thanks to Big Bad Samuel's many Kick the Dog moments throughout the season, his right-hand men and other followers are all convinced to turn against him without a fight, rendering the previously all-powerful Big Bad into a powerless sap to be dragged off by the cops. Meanwhile, Sylar stays true to his redemption and incapacitates Doyle without killing him. This is pretty noteworthy considering the show's tendency to purge all its secondary characters at the end of each Volume, typically with a massive Sylar-centric bloodbath.
• Everyone Is Driving A Nissan
• Everyone Loves Blondes: It's been referenced several times that Nathan likes blondes. His exes Meredith and Tracy are both blonde. Claire is also blonde, which makes the reveal that she's Nathan's daughter with Meredith all the more effective.
  • Noah and Sandra are also blonde, and after their divorce, their new significant others are also blonde.
• Everyone Is Related: The number of major characters who have been revealed to be related to each other is getting a little silly at this point. For example, Claire is Noah's adopted daughter; she's also Nathan's biological daughter and therefore, Peter's niece and Ma Petrelli's granddaughter. We half expect the writers to say, "What the hell, Adam "Kensei" Monroe is '''everyone's''' great-great-great-great-ect.-grandfather." He does have a Meaningful Name. At one point he took the last name Sanders. Also he had two sons in Italy in the 17th century and his heraldic crest (the symbol) is also the symbol of the Petrelli family law firm. And, of course, superpowers are genetic.
• Everyone Went to School Together: A variant. Angela Petrelli, Charles Deveaux, Daniel Linderman, and Bob Bishop, as well as Angela's younger sister Alice spent time at Coyote Sands, a relocation camp for people with abilities, where Chandra Suresh was also a doctor.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Zig-zagged with Mr. Muggles. Most of the time he can tell when something is wrong, but he seemed to not have a problem with a disguised Sylar and Revenge!Ted.
  • A deleted scene from "The Second Coming" plays this straight when Sylar has trapped Claire inside a closet and Mr. Muggles goes mad barking at him. He gets flicked out the doggie door for his trouble.
• Eviler than Thou: Pa Petrelli has his first speaking line after draining Adam Monroe's power, causing him to age Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade-style and crumble to dust. Those words?
  Pa Petrelli: Feels good to breathe again.
• Evil Eyebrows: Sylar.
• Evil Makeover: According to Volume Three, hair gel = evil.
  • Except that in Sylar's case, once he started donning the hair gel, he kept trying to go good.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Whenever some erstwhile Chessmaster keeps Sylar alive or even feeds him powers while plotting to use him to further their own evil schemes, you know the main man is going to eventually turn around and make things end badly for them. Bennet even Lampshades this when confronting Danko.
  Bennet: Just how dumb are you? Who did you think would be left standing the moment Sylar got bored? You?
• Evil Matriarch: Mrs. Petrelli, especially in the first two Volumes.
• Evil Overlooker: Both covers to the first graphic novel collection show Sylar looming over the Heroes. As does the Season 2 DVD cover. And the second graphic novel collection.
• Evil Versus Evil: Volume Three looked like it was working towards a battle between Primatech Paper/The Company (a morally ambiguous Ancient Conspiracy that tried to blow up New York City to unify the world) and Pinehearst Industries (a Legion of Doom of supervillains whose actions are apparently destined to make the world explode). Yeah...
• Expecting Someone Taller: After meeting him in Volume 5, Samuel and Lydia discuss their disappointment that the long-feared, Shrouded in Myth figure of "Sylar, the most powerful one of all" turns out to be a confused amnesiac with a rather mild-mannered disposition.
  • There's a reason for his nicer attitude - the memories he's retained are still Nathan's.
• Expendable Alternate Universe: Future timespaces are like throw away countries where you can have massive casualties, even of the main characters, and it doesn't matter because it hasn't happened yet and (maybe) never will.
• Exposition of Immortality: We first encounter Adam Monroe through Hiro travelling back in time to 17th-century Japan. When we next meet him, it's the 21st century and he looks exactly the same. It's explained directly to Peter that Adam's cellular regeneration power keeps him alive and stops him from aging.
• Expy: Almost:
  • A charismatic, wealthy genius who was once a hero and believes that the first step to world peace is to blow up New York.
  • An extremely skilled, centuries-old warrior who became extremely bitter after loosing his first love, is immortal, has fought in many wars, assembled an organization to fight the evils of the world, and, after seeing years of suffering in the world decides to wipe out the human race with a deadly virus in order to give the world a clean start.
• Extra-Strength Masquerade: From nuclear explosions over New York City to people using their powers to cheat in Vegas casinos, from a Serial Killer who freezes his victims and cuts their heads open without a blade to a concentration camp for metahumans constructed in The '60s, and from former employees of the Mutant Draft Board putting their experience on their résumés and being hired by the CIA to an effort to abduct American citizens with superpowers being discussed (albeit in vague terms) on a Captain Ersatz for the Larry King show, there should be no way that The Masquerade can endure...and yet it does.
• Eye Scream: Inflicted on Sylar by Claire in "Pass/Fail".

---