User:Piemanmoo/Powers and Personalities
Tim Kring has stated in interviews that the character's powers are reflections of their personalities. Both natural and synthetic super powers are a result of evolution (either by taking time or speeding it up artificialy) and adaptation being influenced by the subconscious whims of the subject. In short, a person gets an ability that helps them in their day-to-day life, based on what they (either consciously or subconsciously) think they need.
Peter Petrelli
Being a nurse, his job depends on him feeling and understanding the suffering of others. Not only his occupation, he had always been seen by his family growing up as the softer child of the two. Nathan and his father were both big and commanding men (Described as Alpha Dogs by their mother), while Peter wasn't. His softer, gentler nature allowed him to connect with people much more easily, which is why he became a nurse, working mostly with dying people and their families. Being connected with people all the time would naturaly lead him to powers that could be useful in an occupation that depends on feeling and soothing the suffering of others.
Nathan Petrelli
Nathan is basicaly a huge jerk. Growing up, he was favored by his father and thus became more like him, being a "me first" personality and seeing himself above others (although not quite in such an evil way as his dad). Nevertheless, Nathan did not always approve of what his dad did. He was disgusted by his dad's dealings with Linderman, so by becoming a family lawyer he was forced to become part of a group of people that he himself did not care for. By being around people he couldn't stand, he could have subconciously wished he could escape it all. So powers that allow for a quick getaway would definantly help him. And then during his car accident, he himself was about to be seriously injured unless he himself could escape, and his ability manifested as flight.
Hana Gitelman
After her mother and grandmother were killed, the one thing Hana wanted more than anything was to prove her worth to their legacies. Even though she wasn't allowed in combat, she focused all her energy into planing attack stratigies. Other people started to notice that she seemed to know the moves of the enemies before they did. This suggests that she was unconsiously using her EDT power to read enemy attack strategies and plan counter-attacks. Her determination to live up to her family's reputation led her to develop a power that could make her the best in her field.
D.L. Hawkins
It almost goes without saying, with him being an innocent man in prision knowing his wife and kid have to fend for themselves, that he would have given anything to be able to escape so he could find out who framed him and to go back to his family.
Matt Parkman
Ever since Matt's dad left him, he wondered if it was all his fault because there was something wrong with him, either he was too fat or too stupid and that some way he could have been a better son. Although he eventualy accepted that his father left because of his own issues, Matt still held onto the idea that he could be a better person, but he regularly encountered problems. His dyslexia only furthered this by making it so he couldn't move up in his job as he had hoped. He was always worried what people were thinking about him, and what he would need to do to improve. Soon he developed the ability to see how others saw him, and he was able to be much more self-confident than before.
Niki Sanders
An alcoholic single mother who had to support a child, Niki had repeatedly vocally expressed before her desire to be strong enough for her son. But besides these external struggles, Niki also had to deal with her deep-seated internal struggles of her father killing her sister. Her life was spiraling downwards, and she desperatley wanted the strenght to fix it. She had already started to develop a seperate personality to deal with her emotional trauma, but she also developed the physcial strength to do all the things that could fix her broken family.
Sylar
Being a watchmaker, Gabriel Gray was constantly surrounded by complex machines and sytems. In a similar fashion to Hana, he had ambitions of greatness, but he wasn't looking to live up to his family's reputation as simple repairmen. Rather, he wanted to prove to the world that he could be someone truly special. Knowing how any system worked certainly was a boon to him while fixing watches, but knowing how other people worked showed him how he could be completley unique.
Charlie Andrews
Waitresses have been known to need to remember a lot, especialy when taking multiple orders. Wanting to save enough money to travel the world, she soon began getting very good at her job by remembering everything perfectly. Learning new things was superhumanly easy for her, and so perparing to go accross the globe seemed easier than ever before.
Ando Masahashi
Ever since he learned about Hiro's powers, Ando has done everything in his capacity to help Hiro wherever possible. Even risking his own life in taking out Sylar alone, he has tried to be not only the best friend possible, but the best sidekick possible. Hiro insisted that Ando was just as much a hero as he was, even without powers. When Hiro becomes trapped and Ando the only one who can possibly save him, the formula gives him the ability to amplify the powers of others. Now he's able to help Hiro and others use their abilities even more, making him the best sidekick anyone could ask for.
Daphne Millbrook
Being crippled and watching her mother run, Daphne wishes she too could be a runner, more than anything. An eclipse comes around, and not only is she able to walk and run, but she is faster than she could have possibly imagined.
Eden McCain
Growing up in an abusive household, nobody cared what she had to say. Her father left and her step-mother treated her like garbage instead of a human being. When Eden was finaly brave enough to stand up to her step-mother, she learned she was able to command anyone to do what she demanded. She was finaly able to make people listen to what she had to say.
Hiro Nakamura
Hiro felt like a prisioner of time while working at his father's company. Day in, day out, Hiro was stuck in the same dead-end job when he really wanted to be someone special. In his childhood, he had wished that he could be like his hero, Takezo Kensei, and be someone who could bring his family great honor. He soon learned that he had the power to control time, not the other way around.
Claude Rains
Antisocial and avoidant of other people, Claude hated nothing more than people who insisted on getting close to him without his consent. Like someone standing too close to you in a line, Claude felt like everyone was out to smother him, and just wanted people to leave him alone for a change. He then became able to escape everyone else, and live the life he wanted to: on his own, not having to interact with people unless he wanted to.
Tracy Strauss
Tracy believes in doing what it takes to get the job done, without worrying about what it takes. Her off-putting nature makes her a very cold and calculating person. When her history with the senator was about to be exposed, along with other information that she knew wasn't true, she wanted nothing more than to make sure that to make sure things would stay the way they were. She then manifested the ability to freeze things, keeping them in the exact same place and allowing her to not worry about the reprocussions of her actions coming back to haunt her.
Daniel Linderman
Having a mother dying of cancer is more than enough for a yound boy like Daniel to want to help her. Even after his powers manifested, he continued to see the world as an ugly place that needed to be healed.
Traveler
Going around from place to place with the sole intention of having fun can be difficult, and different cultures make it hard for everyone to fit in, and foreigners usualy take a while to get adjusted to life in a new place. Being able to instantly adapt to a new culture by understand all of their verbal and nonverbal communication allows Travler to no longer be a foreinger to anyone, effectivley making him a citizen of the world.