silar question - spoilers

[Princess Ivy]

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i'm getting a bit confused with silars powers here, can someone enlighten.
i've seen the first season already and am watching again, last night was homecomming, just after 7mins to midnight
it seems quite clear in these eps that silar has to physically take the powers from others - removing the brain etc..., unlike peter who can absorb when simply in the same area. we also see silar's first encounter with eden - where she uses the voice on him.
however, in later episodes, silar is able to use compulsion on eden, and after encountering hiro, is like peter able to withstand his frozen time field.
so, does he have to take power physically (as we see him in 'six months ago'), or can he simply assimilate like peter?

[Harleyquin]

The $64000 question indeed.

The key to silar and the way in wich he accesses his powers is his back story.

We discover he's a watchmaker by trade, but more importantly his passion is for looking and working out how a mechanisim works. So we extend this logic forward to his power - for him to "absorb" a power his mind dictates he needs to understand the working of the machine - and in this case its the brain of the machiene hence why he takes the brain out - note here that all you ever see is the brain being removed - theres no other piece of info such as he eats it or something else - he simply "removes" it. We can therefor extrapolate this is akin to him taking the brain out and examining it somehow in the same way he examins a watch - and once he understands how the mechanisim works he can then access that power.

Peter if you look at his absorbing power is not to dissimilar. he only learned how to fly becuase of his strong emotional bond to his brother.. next after being tought to access poewrs he does this by "thinking2 about that person who had those powers... he's therefor in his own way examining the mechanisim but becuase he was a paliative care nurse his mind is more intune with the person... he emotionally connects to humans and thus is able to access those powers.

Personally I think Silar and perter have exactly the same power but becuase they access the world in a different way - silar looks for mechanics, peter looks for the human connection they absorb and therefor access their power in a different manner - however most importantly they BOTH "absorb" and could both do it in the same way if they thought the same way.

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as for Peter being able to withstand the frozen time field this can be easily explained - the first time he meets Hiro its an intentional meeting - Hiro is controling the time bubble... ok we know peter absorbs powers so in later episodes is "immunity" to time fields could be explained by peter subconciously activating that power (even though he dosent understand how to fully use it) to break out of the time bubble.

Silar - well this one is a little more difficult but again we know he eventually kills her to get her power, yet seemingly resists her first... this for me was the key event (though could have just been sloppy writing) as its shows he is able to absorb in the same way as peter (even though he didnt realise it at the time) and therefor be "immune" to the effect prior to killing her.

[Princess Ivy]

Originally Posted by Harleyquin

Silar - well this one is a little more difficult but again we know he eventually kills her to get her power, yet seemingly resists her first... this for me was the key event (though could have just been sloppy writing) as its shows he is able to absorb in the same way as peter (even though he didnt realise it at the time) and therefor be "immune" to the effect prior to killing her.

are we talking about eden? if we are, as i recal it, silar uses edens power against her, she then takes her own life. so he had to have absorbed it - although maybe it is only when the power is used against him that he can 'capture' it? there have been several villians in comics who have had that ability...
but he had to kill the neuclear man to get his power...(can't think of his name at this min)

[Harleyquin]

Originally Posted by Princess Ivy

are we talking about eden? if we are, as i recal it, silar uses edens power against her, she then takes her own life. so he had to have absorbed it - although maybe it is only when the power is used against him that he can 'capture' it? there have been several villians in comics who have had that ability...
but he had to kill the neuclear man to get his power...(can't think of his name at this min)

yup eden...

As I said in my post I "believe" Sialar absorbs in the same way as perter BUT he dosent understand this - for him he "must" take the brain out to take the power...

Ok so stick with me here Silar absorbs power off people he meets exactly the same way peter does, but becuase his mind is purley focused around the mechanical he dosent understand this untill he takes the person appart - hwever he still has the power before this - he's just not able to conciously access the power.

So if we accept this we can say he subconciously accessed the power to use the persauation effect - after all he was drugged up to the eyeballs and therefor more easily able to access subconcious abilities and turn it back on her... after he's killed her though his mind still dictates for him to understand and take her power he needs to take her appart - this all despite he's just used her power to kill her. he's just not connected the dots together and cannot see he dosent need to phsically take the person appart.

Though this again could just have been a poor writing at the time but if not this is the only way I can speculate the enigma

[Weasel Soup]

I so want to talk at length about this but it wouldn't be fair. (We Americans have seen the full first season)

But I absolutely love that it is generating the same excitement overseas. We have a group of folks in my hometown who all go to the tavern to watch it, with a bartender who works just 2 hours a week at the paticular place because it is airing.

Gotta love that Sylar.

[triffid]

Originally Posted by Harleyquin

We discover he's a watchmaker by trade, but more importantly his passion is for looking and working out how a mechanisim works. So we extend this logic forward to his power - for him to "absorb" a power his mind dictates he needs to understand the working of the machine - and in this case its the brain of the machiene hence why he takes the brain out - note here that all you ever see is the brain being removed - theres no other piece of info such as he eats it or something else - he simply "removes" it. We can therefor extrapolate this is akin to him taking the brain out and examining it somehow in the same way he examins a watch - and once he understands how the mechanisim works he can then access that power.

Peter if you look at his absorbing power is not to dissimilar. he only learned how to fly becuase of his strong emotional bond to his brother.. next after being tought to access poewrs he does this by "thinking2 about that person who had those powers... he's therefor in his own way examining the mechanisim but becuase he was a paliative care nurse his mind is more intune with the person... he emotionally connects to humans and thus is able to access those powers.

Personally I think Silar and perter have exactly the same power but becuase they access the world in a different way - silar looks for mechanics, peter looks for the human connection they absorb and therefor access their power in a different manner - however most importantly they BOTH "absorb" and could both do it in the same way if they thought the same way.

Nice explanation of Sylar's/Peter's absorption ability, kinda had the same theory myself. As for what he did where Eden was concerned I think I'll have to watch that again before making a comment.

[Delvo]

Silar never used a power of a person he hadn't dismantled first. He never used Eden's power against her. He attacked her using other powers he did already have, but she killed herself to keep him from getting hers.

[ScottSF]

Originally Posted by Princess Ivy

are we talking about eden? if we are, as i recal it, silar uses edens power against her, she then takes her own life. so he had to have absorbed it - although maybe it is only when the power is used against him that he can 'capture' it? there have been several villians in comics who have had that ability...
but he had to kill the neuclear man to get his power...(can't think of his name at this min)

woah, I though Eden consciously took her own life to keep Sylar from getting her power. It never occured to me that Sylar made her shoot herself. The way I remember it was he was about to open her brain but she shot up her own brain so he couldn't use it. Maybe I need to see it again.

[ScottSF]

oh see someone else had the same conclusion as me. A note on Peter: Flying was not the first power he used, he was doing a precognition dreaming thing before he flew. My guess is that he picked that up from his patient in the beginning of the show. That guy later spoke to peter in his dream and was one of the originals with Ms. Patrelli, et al.