Theory:Exposed future

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The following fan theories are about exposed future.

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Theories

Theory	Citations	Notes
The "exposed future" is not avoidable this time.	None.	+ Future Peter has changed too much in the past, unlike Future Hiro and thus made it impossible to correct everything. - Changing the past is what could prevent the "exposed future". - Hiro and Peter have been able to change the past before. • Maybe they will realize that every time they change the future the next one is worse. + In the very beginning of Heroes, it was said that the evolved humans "will not only save the world, but change it forever". It's just the matter of time when people discover that there are special individuals among them, but the world will be saved, not destroyed. It's Heroes, you know. + In the exposed future, some evolved humans are hunted down and persecuted. This is also happening in the present day. - The government is targeting nearly all evolved humans. The exposed future government allows abilities to be given to the general public. - The formula has been destroyed.
Noah Gray is the child of Sylar and Elle Bishop.	None.	+ Sylar and Elle could bond over having problems dealing with their powers, as they did in the present day. - Elle also died in the present day. + Sylar and Elle might have produced Noah the child in an alternate timeline, a timeline where Elle didn't die. After all, Sylar only reverted back to his old self after Peter interfered in the events that took place.
Noah Gray's mother is Sandra Bennet.	None.	+ The Grays are living at the Bennet house in Costa Verde. + Maybe Noah Bennet dies and Sandra discovers that she was pregnant with his child and later dies in child birth. Sylar then adopts him.
Peter is the source of the explosion.	Peter has already exploded once in How to Stop an Exploding Man.	+ Peter absorbs lots of powers and being part of an army of powered people might overload him. + Peter has been directly tied to three bad futures: the "explosion future," the "outbreak future," and the "exposed future." - Future Peter was killed by Future Claire.
Peter is a catalyst for time's rifts.	All the dark futures have been indirectly Peter's fault.	+ In the "explosion future," Peter is set to explode (How to Stop an Exploding Man). • If Peter hadn't exploded, Sylar would have. + In the "outbreak future," Peter assisted Adam in releasing the virus (Powerless). - Peter was also the only person capable of stopping the vial from shattering at the time. + Future Peter's interference with the past (The Butterfly Effect) seems to have caused the "exposed future". - Future Peter came from the original "exposed future". - Although many of the future catastrophes appear to be caused by Peter, they are also stopped by Peter. Because Peter was exploding instead of Sylar, Nathan flew off with him and saved New York. Kensei was going to release the virus with or without Peter's help. Because Peter had Sylar's telekinesis, he was able to stop the vial from shattering. - Nathan caused the world where Future Peter came from to occur by revealing his powers.
Peter and Hiro must work together to stop the "exposed future".	None.	+ Hiro and Peter went to the future separately, but both saw the "exposed future", indicating that neither stopped the "exposed future" without the other. - Both Peter and Hiro have lost their powers. + You don't need powers to be a hero. + Peter has regained his powers. • Peter's restored power has yet to be confirmed to be empathic mimicry, and while it is most likely the same ability, it should not be considered empathic mimicry until confirmed by canon sources. + Hiro has regained part of his powers. • Hiro and Peter working together, now with weakened powers, would be an interesting plot twist.
Sylar took Claire's ability in Future Peter's timeline.	None.	- Angela blames this on Future Peter. - Future Peter did not point out that it would have happened anyway. + In this timeline, Claire practically quotes Sylar, saying she's "different" and "special". + In this timeline, Claire works for Pinehearst. The writers say that seeing Peter fall out the window "averted or delayed" Future Claire's employment by Pinehearst. This suggests that Future Claire's recruitment happened when she and Elle came to the Pinehearst building, which they did because Claire had lost control of her ability when Sylar attacked her. - This could also suggest that Future Claire was recruited at some other point, but crossing paths with Peter's incident prevented this. + In the I Am Become Death timeline, Future Claire works for Pinehearst, even though she had reason to go to Pinehearst with Elle. - It could be both that Claire going to Pinehearst was caused by Future Peter's intervention, and that Peter's incident at Pinehearst was caused by his knowledge of the future.
In the "exposed future", the planet will be shattered by an evolved human with the power of earth manipulation.	In the "exposed future," as seen in I Am Become Death, we saw a newspaper which said, "Man causes earthquake in Australia", killing hundreds of thousands.	+ It will require a tremendous power to split the whole planet in pieces. An ability like earth manipulation would do the trick. - Not even the most destructive ability introduced so far has caused enough damage to destroy a planet. + That's because Stephen Canfield wasn't a villain. If he were, he could have inflicted far more terrible harm than killing a man once in his lifetime. + He would gain nothing by destroying the planet. • Peter and Ted Sprague had induced radioactivity and used to lose control over it, thus putting towns and cities in danger. If the same happened to Canfield, his ability would be powerful enough to destroy the world - but not in the predicted way. • Stephen had a control index of 60%, a good one compared to Ted (12%) and Peter (27%), though not as good as Sylar (76%).
If Hiro (or anyone with space-time manipulation) decided to go to the past to change the future so the world wouldn't explode, his goal would be not to let Sylar take Claire's ability - again.	None.	+ If Sylar hadn't obtained regeneration, he would never dare to assault Primatech. Thus the twelve villains would never be unleashed. • With Arthur dead and Hiro powerless, there are no more known characters with space-time manipulation. • Hiro has back a portion of his powers now. ("Cold Snap")
In 2011, world destruction will be inevitable. Even if they stop this future from coming true, there will always be something new.	None.	+ In both the explosion future and the exposed future, 2011 is dark. No matter how many times they save the world, something else happens. Maybe they just can't fight the future. • Stopping the explosion might have only been a portion of what Hiro meant when he said, "Save the Cheerleader. Save the World". - In the explosion future, the world wasn't destroyed. + In the explosion future the world may not have been physically destroyed, but New York was destroyed, the president was a psycho killer, not to mention every evolved human was going to be murdered, it's possible to call that pretty dire. In the Outbreak future, 2011 was not a noted time, however by that time, the world must have been wiped out. 2011 doesn’t look good. • All disasters stem from the same source - the evolved humans. • All disasters are also averted by them.
The "exposed future" happens now in a similar way.	None	+ Nathan "exposed" the evolved humans at the beginning of Fugitives. - The formula has been destroyed. + We know there is at least one vial still in existence - the one Angela "confiscated" from Rachel Mills. - Angela said herself that was an uncatalyzed vial. + It wasn't destroyed before a number of humans received it. One of these powers could be the cause of the world exploding. + Nathan has convinced the government to conduct a program that could cause a similar 'war' as anticipated by Pinehearst's augmentation of marines.
The exposed future was prevented by Future Peter shooting Nathan, changing the future to that where everyone has abilities and the world explodes. The destruction of the formula, death of Arthur and Nathan's turn have caused the future to change back to where the "specials" are exposed and hunted.	None.	+ Angela tells Future Peter that he is causing a butterfly effect, making a worse future. - This could refer to the Level 5 escape, or the destruction of Costa Verde. • The future changed multiple times in Volume 3 by the acts of time travellers. - Future Peter notes that one of the problems with the original exposed future is the formula.
The image depicted on The World Splitting in Half comes true in the exposed future.	Hiro saw Japan get devastated in The Second Coming.	+ Several of Issac's paintings only came true when Hiro previously traveled through time.