season 2 divided

[thefilmguy22384]

i think the season finale shows that heroes works much better as a full season arch rather then dividing it in half. some people think that the reason why volume 2 is only 11 episodes is because the writers strike cut it short. this is not the case. all the writers strike did was cancle volume 3 airing in season 2. it just made it so that they had to rewrite volume two's finale into the season finale. to give it a nice closed book ending so people would feel comftorable waiting until next season to see volume 3. back before the writers strike the season was still going to be divided into two parts, volume 2 and 3. that was always the plan. the people behind heroes felt that audience had trouble staying interested over the full season arch of season one. especially since the ratings dropped midway through the season when they took a break. they felt that seperating this show into two parts for this season would hold audiences attention better. so volume two's finale was always meant to end pretty much the way it did. this means that the argument that this was never meant to be the finale for this volume does not apply because it was. the plan for this season just showed that 11 episodes is not a lot of time to tell a deep meaningful heroes storyline. next season they should go back to the full season arch style of season one.

[Mello Penelo]

Pretty darn good. Just not as good as the first season. I don't say Kring lost his focus, just focused too much on flashy-flashy people with powers and not genetics (which is what the first season was about).

[Matro]

I still don't understand I guess. What does splitting Season 2 into two 11 episode volumes accomplish? They still put a cliffhanger in between the volumes. There is still going to be a break that fans will have to wait through. If the show didn't have a cliffhanger before a break I would personally have more trouble keeping interest.

this means that the argument that this was never meant to be the finale for this volume does not apply because it was.

Either way, Kring still had to re-tool this episode to be a season finale. I think he did well with what he had.

Another thought: Volume 2 is called "Generations". They barely scratched the surface of the group of twelve or anything that would relate to that title. This further reinforces my belief that the volume was cut short.

[thefilmguy22384]

yeah you do need a mid season cliffhanger. thats a must. but the big difference of having a full season arch is that they would have had time to develop and tie storylines together better. for instance the sylar storyline didnt get too connected into the bigger plot. like the end of season one all the characters storylines became connected in the end. thats because they had time to develop them that way. this season was too rushed. especially at the end. according to kring the volume was always meant to be only 11 episodes even before the strike was announced. its just that he wasnt gonna try to cram and resolve everything into this volume. he was gonna leave things open for the second half of the season to kick off from. but since they are now done until next season he decided to try to resolve and cram things as much as he could so people wouldnt have to wait.

[STFanatic]

I like the shorter volumes.

But, I think they need to cull out a few "Heroes" from it.
When there are so many characters it takes away from the main plot.

It reminds me of the 80's Avengers comics, there were so many members of the group, the one or two favorites never got much story lines.

[faz]

I liked this volume being shorter, because I had such high hopes for the "Generations" concept that were never really lived up to, even though the second half of the episodes were, for the most part, fantastic. I lost interest in the whole arc pretty early on. But if they come up with a new arc that I find myself interested in, I would hope it goes the full season. From what Tim Kring has said and the teaser at the end of the episode, "Villains" looks to be pretty promising, and I could easily see that kind of arc going for the whole season.

[Noxrider]

I know, I'm trolling a bit..but I usually wait until watching a box set before making too many judgments/critiques. Just finished watching season 2 today.

I'm not sure what people have been saying about big disappointments all over the place. However, the writers of this show have created a very dangerous beast in some aspects:

We have:

1) A time-traveller who, if emotionally derailed, has the ability to retcon pretty much anything not to his liking;

2) A regeneratrix who now possesses the ability to heal the wounds of others (I am not convinced this means bringing someone back from the dead entirely -- not to mention a evil version, as well, although he's temporarily dealt with;

3) A power-absorber who gains strength by building relationships with others...he's not the smartest, to be sure, but I still think he CARES the most about others.

4) A power-absorber who gains strength by murdering someone with powers.

Basically, what I'm getting at is this: the writers have made a huge challenge for themselves by making pretty much any ending rewritable/retconnable. The most important thing they can do is find reasons to seal up some of these open "What If" and "Why didn't they just.."s, because the characters as a whole group are just too powerful. If they don't do something to that effect soon, the show will leak like a sieve.

However, I enjoyed Hiro's whole arc this season...been reading some complaints about the way he finished off Adam. My take: Hiro once felt responsible for how Kensei/Adam turned out, and was not a killer. Lucky him -- his new opponent can't actually be killed, short of beheading, and I don't think Hiro knows that yet.

However, Hiro's talk with his father about preventing death was quite valuable -- it absolves Hiro's feelings of guilt about Adam and teaches Hiro to become Adam's opposite. Adam is content with becoming a god, if his plan works. Hiro must use his powers to stop those who would pretend at being gods. Adam's flow in time is eternal, Hiro's main power is to observe key points in the timestream (believe it or not, the word that follows "time-space" ________ is blocked on this forum, probably because it sounds like a 4-letter word, LOL) and STOP time.

And finally, about Hiro "finishing" Adam: it's perfectly sound, in my opinion. They are being cast as opposing roles. Some have said "Adam only killed his father." Ridiculous. Adam has:

a) destroyed Hiro's faith in a legend, both by being a drunk AND becoming a villain;

b) ruined Hiro's chance at love with the Princess (okay, we didn't really want that to happen, did we?); and

c) vowed to destroy anything Hiro holds dear.

Since when is that level of threat NOT worthy of extreme justice? Maybe we're sad that it's Hiro, our naive, innocent friend. But unrealistic? Hardly. It surprises me that Hiro wasn't more extreme in his choice of venues -- earth's outer core, maybe?

Sorry if I went long, just would rather make one post than many short ones.