Saving Charlie is a Heroes Tie-In Novel. It expands on the episode "Six Months Ago" in which Hiro travels back in time and begins a relationship with Charlie, culminating in his attempts to save her from Sylar.
Tropes include:
- A Day in the Limelight: For both characters, but especially Charlie. While Hiro eventually went on to become a regular main character, at the point of the first Volume that this story takes place, he was fairly low on the cast hierarchy.
- Always Save the Girl: Despite the fact that Hiro knows that every law of comic book time travel states that you are not allowed to use your powers to alter the past, especially for personal gain, he can't help himself in the case of Charlie.
- The Dulcinea Effect: This is despite the fact that Hiro's timeline means he first sets out to save Charlie only a few hours after first meeting her. Her "first" meeting with him, meanwhile, is actually after a six-month relationship, so of course she was very fond of him.
- Asian Speekee Engrish: Hiro's English is quite terrible at the outset of the book, often resulting in him dropping helping verbs like "is".
- Automaton Horses: Hilariously inverted by Hiro when he tries to come up with an excuse to stay at the diner a bit longer and tells Ando that their car needs to rest.
- Colon Cancer: The official full title is Heroes: Saving Charlie: A Novel.
- Did Not Get the Girl: A given if you know the outcome of the show.
- First Love: Charlie is the first girl Hiro has actually had any sort of relationship success with.
- Foregone Conclusion: Anyone who's seen the show will know that Hiro Did Not Get the Girl.
- Greasy Spoon: The Burnt Toast Diner.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Charlie's ex Lloyd is not the least bit thrilled about her new love.
- Hot Blooded Sideburns: Lloyd's sideburns are threatening to take over his face.
- Hotter and Sexier: Hiro's TV character is written as a very pure, romantic, nigh-asexual man (in contrast to his buddy Ando). In this novel, Hiro "gets pretty randy" by admission of his actor
, Masi Oka. - Loser Protagonist: Hiro is a nerd with basically No Social Skills when it comes to women.
- Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: Gender Flipped, with a Japanese man and a white American woman. Charlie is still pretty domestic, though.
- Must Have Caffeine: At the start of the book, Ando is quite grouchy before his morning coffee. Hiro knows better than to mess with him until after breakfast.
- Must Not Die a Virgin: At the end of the book, just before Charlie is killed by Sylar in order to keep the timeline in tact, the two of them decide to sleep together once, for Their First Time.
- Nerds Are Virgins: Hiro laments that not only has he never slept with a woman, but he's never been able to tell a girl he loves her, either. He's done both by the end of the book. Hiro thinks that at twenty-four, he's not just a virgin, but an embarrassment.
- Official Couple: Hiro and Charlie, obviously.
- Replacement Goldfish: While in the past, Hiro can't speak to Ando or he risks breaking the timeline, so he makes friends with fellow comic book geek PJ.
- Robosexual: Perhaps somewhat implied with Hiro, as he keeps comparing Charlie to the title character of the manga Robogirl.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: A given if you know the outcome of the show.
- Translation Convention: When Hiro and Ando speak Japanese to each other, it's rendered as perfectly normal English. When Hiro teaches Charlie Japanese, it's still rendered as English, but this time in italics - mostly to note when she switches back to English (Hiro's switch to English, meanwhile, is marked by a flip back into poor grammar).
