Cutting heads open: Only to get powers?

[rocana]

I've noticed a lot of confusion over why Sylar cut Elle's head open this episode since he already had her power, and thought I'd put forth a theory. This isn't the first time this has happened. Remember, Peter tried to cut open future Nathan's head and later his Mom's head, even though he already had both their powers as well. The thing all these situations have in common is that they were all holding back information that Peter/Sylar wanted. Maybe the urge to find out this info caused the "hunger" to be too much to ignore... but what if his power of finding out how things work, isn't just limited to power absorbtion? What if he can actually read people's minds to find out the information they craze as well? Sort of like Parkman except he needs to open up someone's brain to do it? It sort of corresponds with his power to figure anything out, right? What do you think?

[Litle bit more bizarre]

I think that this cutting is some kind of reflex bounded with Sylars power I mean something natural for this power because if he realy know how to things work than he want to know how brains works because brain is not like machine but this power is pushing him to understand everything

[Yoshua]

They get more than powers. Peter was going to cut open Nathans head to see why he joined his father and he was going to cut his mothers head open to find out her secrets.


Obviously they can get more than powers or else they never would have written it into the scripts.

[Ginx]

Maybe the pain caused by cutting their heads allows someone to 'read' them more. I can't remember if Sylar has an ability where he can hear thoughts or not? Maybe he was just torturing her to get information out of her.

[Yoshua]

Maybe the pain caused by cutting their heads allows someone to 'read' them more. I can't remember if Sylar has an ability where he can hear thoughts or not? Maybe he was just torturing her to get information out of her.

No brain powers for sylar other than intuitive aptitude.

However he CAN hear heart beats and know when someone is lieing if he taught himself how to pick it out.

[littlefoo20]

Does Sylar's "hunger" have to do with the need to have power, or the need to have knowledge? I have yet to figure that one out. At first I thought it was the need for power with will make him "special", but now I'm just clueless.

[simdog]

i think his hunger is quite confusing because it seems to me that all sylar needs to do to have other peoples powers is to know how to do it he looks at their brains to find out but all arthur did was told him to be empathic and he can take abilities without the killing we all know his ability is intuitive aptitude so he cant have 2 abilities naturally. so my theory is that all he needs is the knowledge of how an ability works and he can utilise it using his natural ability

[Litle bit more bizarre]

I was thinking about the option that cutting head off can give Sylar some informations about the victim but than I realised that if its truth than all first season line when Mohinder was with Sylar would be plothole because if he could take informations from cutting heads than he just needed to cut Chandra Suresh head and than he would know how to make a new list so I think when he cuts someones head off he just get the ability and understanding how to use that power

[Pixelate]

It may be the 'narcissist' influence of his ability at play sometimes. He does not want to spend time putting all the information he has gleamed together. It will be convenient to let Mohinder who has the information, and secondly is going to synthesis or put the information together, just do his work (Mohinder is an asset, so to speak). I don't think Sylar can get information that one has not absorbed or learned from anyone's brain. And Mohinder doesn't have any interesting power to make him crave a walkabout through Mohinders brain cells.

Sylar is driven by the hunger for abilities, fueled by his aptitude ability or vice versa. It is interesting how he figured out the complexity of Claire's ability after taking it whiles Claire who is gifted with the ability has no clue as to its full implications.

It really depends on how his ability works. Does he scan brain patterns and mimics those in his own brain. He may understand how things work but can he scan memories as well...?? For all you know, he can only figure out the way the brain cells fire to produce a certain ability and just replicates the same process. So he may figure out how your brain stores memories, but he cannot replicate them because he hasn't been through your experiences. Or can he go and pick up the memory data stored in your brain............ I'll stop here..getting a headache myself.

[dimefan90]

he was trying to find out if Arthur is his real dad. he suspected Elle of lying to him

[Cyclops1974]

I think it has got somethin to do with the Intuïtive Aptitude power. SYlar cuts peoples heads open to see how their powers work. Than his power changes something inside his ow brain to copy the power from his victim. Remember that Sylar is in complete control off his new powers from the moment he's got tham. Even better control than the original "owner". Empathic Mimicry works different. Pete always was able to mimic the original power but at a more basic level. He actually needs to learn how to use the power. Just as Sylar did when he took Elles power with Empathic Mimicry rather than with Intuitive Aptitude. I Guess he desires more immediate and total control of his new powers. Just having the power is not enough, it's the hunger for exactly knowing and understanding how the power works.

[the highlander]

No, he wanted something more out of Elle and Elle really wanted him to do it. Notice at the beginning of the season Elle sort of explodes when he tries to cut her head open? Yet this time she didn't? She stood still....

Honestly... I am not sure, but sometimes it feels like he kills her out of revenge. The way that he does it its SIMPLY because SHE MADE HIM, so she is reaping what she sew.