Heroes (TV series)/Tropes F-I


 * The Faceless: Sylar, for a surprisingly long time after he was introduced as a character. The first time we actually see his face is in a flashback; therefore the fact that he's uncomfortably handsome is more of a shock. This is, of course, due to the fact that the first part of Season 1 was filmed before Sylar was actually cast, with veteran voice actor Maurice LaMarche providing his voice in the Sylar/Chandra phone call and the on-set Sylar being played by stunt doubles until Zach Quinto was hired
 * Failure Hero: Peter, Mohinder.
 * Fake Brit: Adam is played by Oregon native David Anders.
 * Fake Guest Star: James Kyson Lee gets this treatment throughout Season 1, even though Ando appears in twenty-two out of twenty-three episodes. That's more than Peter, Nathan, or Mohinder, and way more than Simone.
 * Fake Irish: Samuel and Ricky are played by Americans Robert Knepper and Holt McCallany. Will and Caitlin are played by Brits Dominic Keating and Katie Carr.
 * Fake Nationality: See Fake Brit and Fake Irish above. James Kyson Lee (Korean) plays Ando (Japanese). Additionally, while Mohinder is from India, Sendhil Ramamurthy was born in Chicago and grew up in Texas. Lampshaded by Ando who says (of white people, though): "They all look alike."
 * Faking the Dead: Arthur Petrelli
 * Fallen Princess: Claire
 * Family Versus Career As a part of Samuel's plan to manipulate Hiro, he hides Charlie in 1944 Wisconsin. Since Charlie's power is perfect memory, and she had spent the 6 months prior to her appearance learning everything there is to know about everything, she's basically a walking Timeline Altering MacGuffin. Despite being in a unique position to manipulate world events (or at very least make herself fantastically rich), she chooses instead to be Rosie the Riveter and raise kids. The fact that the character had incredible Mundane Utility but never thought to use it in any way but being a better manual laborer stretches into Unfortunate Implications territory.
 * The Family for The Whole Family: The Oirish mob in Season 2.
 * Fandom Nod: Sylar explains that he, in fact, does NOT eat brains.
 * Also in one GN when meeting a trio of evolved humans who think of him as an inspiration, Sylar notes with some surprise "I have... fans!?" most likely a nod to the Sylar fandom.
 * Fantastic Aesop: There are entire episodes devoted to explaining that You Can't Fight Fate and/or change the past. This, however does not apply to the future. You can change that as much as you like. In fact the resolution for both the first and second Volumes is the characters preventing a future event, one witnessed firsthand by one or more characters, from happening. This seems to imply that the "present" timeline that most of the show takes place in is somehow more valid or real than any other timelines.
 * The Farmer and The Viper: Anyone who talks to Sylar. Ever..
 * Fate Worse Than Death: Adam Monroe is stuck in a coffin underground, thanks to Hiro's teleportation ability. Did we mention that he is immortal? And that he essentially can't die?
 * He is released by Hiro in the next season in exchange for helping Hiro and Ando.
 * A Father to His Men: Danko. He admonishes Nathan for not caring enough about his agents, then later tells the rest of his team to remember two killed by a shapeshifter.
 * Subverted later when he's willing to sacrifice members of his team
 * Also Danko's motivation in volume 5.
 * Faux Fluency: Since, despite apparently having a decent working knowledge of Japanese, Adam still pronounces Yaeko's name "Yay-ko", his Japanese is probably an example of this. And who knows how many other examples there are, since polyglots seem to grow on trees in the Heroes universe.
 * Fauxlosophic Narration: Mohinder's Book Ends mentioned above. Though in Volume Three, they mercifully switched to using actual poetry instead of MoeMoe's fluff for a time. They also let a few other characters have narration duty.
 * Fifteen Minutes of Fame: After Claire rescues a man from a fire early on, she lets Jackie lie about being the one who did it (all anyone saw was that the rescuer was wearing a cheerleader uniform), since she herself is mortified about the existence of her superpowers.
 * Fight Unscene: Happens three times in "Five Years Gone": twice when Future!Hiro and Future!Peter square off against the cops and once when Future!Sylar and Future!Peter have their big showdown.
 * They pull the "seen only through a crack in the door" trick again in the Volume Four finale, when Nathan and Peter fight Sylar.
 * Finger Snap Lighter: Meredith, and anyone with fire based powers.
 * Fingore: There's a scene in which Claire cuts off one of her toes. Sure, it regenerates soon after, but the whole thing's just so damn graphic.
 * Flanderization: ... EVERYONE.
 * Peter goes from being a naive dreamer to having almost permanent possession of the Idiot Ball
 * Mohinder turns from a researcher into a Mad Scientist whose ethics have taken a wrong turn somewhere
 * Claire goes from a likeable teenager into annoying and back. Over and over again.
 * Nathan goes from having a rather strait-laced world view to a fanatic with his head in the sand about everything
 * Sylar's mommy and daddy issues take on a life of their own
 * Hiro is turned from a happy-go-lucky goofy nerd into a ten year old boy... literally. And so on and so forth.
 * Noah is turned from a morally gray Anti-Hero who is "somewhat" overprotective of his daughter into a Heel Face Revolving Door idiot with Stalking Is Love for his daughter.
 * First Girl Wins: Charlie over Yaeko. Well, in the order that Hiro meets them. Hiro met Charlie in present-time in Season One and went back in time and met Yaeko in fuedal Japan in Season Two.
 * Flung Clothing:
 * Peter throws off his Badass Longcoat in the middle of giving a beat down.
 * Niki/Jessica stripping before tearing those mobsters to pieces.
 * Forceful Kiss: Season 4 of Heroes
 * For Doom the Bell Tolls: The hilarious scene where Sylar and Elle are about to kill the rental car guy.
 * Forbidden Fruit: Volume Three opens with Hiro getting his father's video will with specific instructions not to open the safe. Guess what Hiro does as soon as he hears this? (Face-palm!)
 * Although his father expected that.
 * Bennet telling Claire to stay away from Samuel then leaving the compass out in a highly visible hiding place. (Head-on, apply directly to forehead.)
 * Forgot About His Powers: At the end of Season 3,
 * Forgot I Could Fly:
 * Forgotten Fallen Friend: Charlie, for a while. Egregiously with Caitlin.
 * Formally-Named Pet: Mrs. Bennett's dog, Mr. Muggles.
 * For Science!:
 * Mohinder. The Volume Three opener is easily the most blatant example, but he's had elements of this all along.
 * This is even lampshaded in 1961, when in a What Have I Done moment Mohinder outright states "For Science!" was his misguided motivation for the crap he pulled in Volume 3.
 * For the Evulz: The only reason Sylar ever does anything.
 * Actually a plot point After Sylar meets bio-dad
 * For Want of a Nail:
 * Four Is Death: Twice in Volume Three.
 * Four Lines, All Waiting
 * Fragile Speedster: Daphne. Subverted by Edgar.
 * Framed Clue: Chandra Suresh's diary is hidden inside the case of his laptop, and only discovered when Mohinder throws it down in frustration. There's also a very clumsy version of this involving reaching for some salt at a diner.
 * Franchise Killer: Season 4/Volume 5 ended up being the final season of Heroes, despite leaving a Cliff Hangar. Your Mileage May Vary whether or not it was due to Volume 5 itself, or just karma from arguably inferior previous seasons catching up. Actually, not only was the show cancelled, but they also ended up abruptly ending the graphic novels, and original plans for an end-of-series movie was also scrapped as well.
 * Friendly Enemy: Sylar to everyone, much to their disgust.
 * From Nobody to Nightmare: Sylar/Gabriel Gray "I could have been a nobody." The Trope Namer.
 * Future Badass: Hiro and Peter and almost everyone in "Five Years Gone", Peter and Claire in "I Am Become Death".
 * Future Me Scares Me: The Trope Namer, as seen immediately above. Hiro says this in "Five Years Gone".
 * Gambit Pileup
 * Gender Bender:
 * Gene Hunting: Claire in Volume 1, Sylar in Volume 4
 * Genocide Backfire: The whole cockup at the Coyote Sands Concentration Camp. Although not a deliberate attempt at genocide, it was a major effort by the U.S. Government to round up and contain supers; before you know it Dr. Suchong Dr. Suresh slaps a little girl, little girl blasts him with lightning, soldiers freak out and open fire on everybody, and hey nonny nonny you've got blood all over the place and a whole bunch of dead supers. And from the ashes rises two groups of very pissed off supers: The Company (who have been responsible for, among other things, attempting to nuke New York City and creating a virus capable of wiping out 99% of the Earth's population), and Samuel Sullivan (the super Anti Christ who, if powered by enough followers, potentially has the ability to split the Earth in half).
 * The Ghost: Mr. Linderman spent the first half of the first Volume as an invisible character. This was later revealed to be due to budget constraints. The show's budget wasn't big enough to pay for the high cost of actor Malcolm McDowell appearing from the start.
 * The Glasses Come Off: Mr. Bennet and Gabriel Gray/Sylar
 * Glasses Push: Hiro
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Ted, Peter, and Sylar get the glowy eyes when they're about to explode.
 * Goo Goo Godlike: Baby Touch n'Go.
 * Good Feels Good -
 * Good Powers, Bad People: Linderman.
 * Good Thing You Can Heal: Claire Bennet is sort of the Trope Namer (it isn't a direct quote but might as well be due to all the trauma the writers like to put her through.) Lately,
 * A God Am I: Adam Monroe, at least in the supplementary comic books. Also Baron Samedi, the Haitian's brother. He seems to give off major Xerxes and Colonel Kurt vibes, too. Let's not forget Arthur Petrelli, with his delusional Nietzche fixation.
 * Gone Horribly Right
 * Gorn: Every other episode or so.
 * Grand Theft Me: Several episodes of mindscrewing with the poor schlub, before Sylar officially took control of Matt's body.
 * Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: There's actually a scene in the second episode where Peter is standing on a ledge talking to Nathan. Peter gets angry and starts walking towards his brother - off the ledge and onto thin air. He doesn't even realise he's doing it until Nathan points out the three feet of empty space beneath him, at which point Gravitational Cognisance apparently kicks in and he falls back to the ground. Justified in that Peter is unwittingly using his new flying ability, but the effect is still remarkably cartoony.
 * Greasy Spoon: Hiro met his beloved at one of these, and Nathan Petrelli at another.
 * Growing Up Sucks: An amnesiac Hiro declares this in Volume Three after discovering everything that happened in the previous Volumes.
 * Hand Wave: Muggles can apparently find Specials by carefully thumb-tacking several bits of colored string to a map. It happens several times.
 * Hannibal Lecture: Subverted. Mr.Bennet is too clever to fall for Sylar's speech. Likewise, his daughter Claire gives Sylar a good Shut UP, Hannibal in the Volume 3 final showdown.
 * Hanlon's Razor:  Especially that corollary of any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
 * Happily Adopted: Claire. It helps that her "real" family are mostly jerks.
 * Has Two Daddies: Mohinder and Matt took care of Molly for a while. It was very cute.
 * Have You Told Anyone Else?: When Noah Bennet asks this of Claire about her powers, she tells him that Zach knows and Lyle found out. The next day, Claire finds that their memories have been erased.
 * Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?: In Volume One, complete with Claire being asked if she plans to "come out" to her family. The Shanti virus (the original strain) also has some parallels to HIV.
 * Headphones Equal Isolation: Emma, a deaf character, wears iPod earbuds that aren't connected to anything to prevent people from trying to talk to her.
 * Heel Face Turn: Mr. Bennet, whose various ruthless actions proved to be an elaborate stratagem to protect his daughter from the very company he's working for, and who is eventually outed and forced to join with two of the heroes in order to keep her safe. This seems more like a Reverse Mole, although the problem with both of these is that he still seems more like a Heel than a Face. Continuing to think of him as a Heel is seeming more reasonable all the time, as Claire (very) briefly flirted with going Heel in Volume Three.
 * Heel Face Revolving Door:
 * Sylar starting in Volume Three. So many in fact that you think he'd get whiplash.
 * Finally resolved near the end of the series.
 * Also throughout the show. But then, he IS a  ...
 * Tracy Strauss: she's Yeah, we got a little confused with her too.
 * She's related to Niki, who had a split personality. Only makes sense she's kind-of crazy, too.
 * could be an alternate title for the Trope.
 * Heroes: Obviously. Though it's somewhat subverted; the show seems to like exploring just how hard being a superhero would be like in practice.
 * Heroes Want Redheads: Hiro and Charlie, the waitress.
 * Heroic Fatigue: Peter in season 4.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Then subverted.
 * Don't forget, who tries to rescue Monica from a burning building at the end of Volume 2, without her super-strength. Monica gets out,   doesn't.
 * Too bad that
 * Heroic Suicide
 * , who kills herself to prevent Sylar from gaining her ability.
 * Peter also tries to pull one in "How to Stop an Exploding Man", but.
 * Hidden Elf Village - This seems to be the purpose of Big Bad Samuel's Carnival in Volume 5. They're a bit more proactive than most, as Samuel's M.O. often involves secretly arranging the deaths of Muggles to push other supers into joining the Carnival.
 * Hijacked By Sylar - Pretty much a constant.
 * Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act - Mocked hilariously when Hiro repeatedly uses his power to sabotage a copier so that a goofball accountant won't photocopy his butt and get fired. Everytime Hiro stops him, he just does it again at the next party.
 * Hitman With a Heart - Edgar is an assassin who wants to quit.
 * Homage: Lots and lots.
 * Homeless Hero: Claude, Danny Pine, Daphne.
 * Danny Pine, a murdering thug, is hardly a hero
 * Horrible Judge of Character: Mohinder Suresh embodies this trope. Maya is even worse.
 * Horror Hunger
 * Hot Blooded: Peter Petrelli
 * How Do I Shot Web: Peter. Oh, the number of time he tries. It gets depressing.
 * How Do You Like Them Apples - "Forbidden fruit. My favorite kind."
 * Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Matt and Daphne, Sylar and Elle, West and Claire. Actually, most couples on the show would qualify.
 * If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten: Happens to Hiro at one point.
 * I Have You Now, My Pretty: Inspired by their Not So Different paths over the course of the series, Sylar woes a captive Claire in the Volume 4 season finale just before his attempt to become President of the United States. Especially creepy in that, by the series' timeline, Claire is barely 17 at this point.
 * Idiot Ball: It's like they're playing basketball with the damn thing. May even count as an aversion, in that everyone is so stupid all the time that it's out of the ordinary when one of the characters does anything intelligent. "Smart Ball", perhaps?
 * Beforehand, Hiro was persuaded by the carnival guy that he can change the timeline without doing too much damage. A few episodes later, the carnival guy tells Hiro that saving Charlie would screw up history...and he believed him despite that other encounter where the carnival guy says the opposite thing.
 * Another moment when Matt decides to drink himself into a stupor to shut out Sylar's voice, which does work, but results in . A case of a plan backfiring. Sure, not even the audience saw it coming, but still.
 * Then there's Mohinder, who pulls a move straight out of Bioshock's playbook, and injects himself with an untested serum for superpowers. Then, he, a scientist, is horrified when it doesn't work. No, seriously, Mohinder. There is a reason for the scientific method. And human testing laws. And psyche evaluations.
 * And how does Modinder decide to fix his little problem? Well obviously by kidnapping people to experiment on.
 * Think of what Peter, Nathan, and Claire could have learned if they'd actually sat down and talked to each other at the end of ".07%"! Bonus points if they'd thought to bring Mohinder into the conversation, or, you know, their mom!
 * Idiot Hero: Peter, first and foremost, though he starts to grow out of it. Sometimes Niki . Hiro . Mohinder . Nathan . Aw, f___ it! EVERYONE.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal:
 * Claire, but other characters fall into this as well.
 * Parkman says this to Daphne in Volume Four. Claire, on the other hand, seems to have given up on any hope of a normal life.
 * Parkman, at the start of Volume 5, is trying to lead a normal life with his wife and son - trying to give up using his powers, attending drug rehabilitation sessions to try to keep his "addiction" under control.
 * I Just Want to Be Special: Seriously, don't mention being special around Sylar--it will only lead to tears and dissection. Also Hiro and Peter (at least until Peter learned the downsides of his ability), Monica too.
 * I Lied:
 * I Know Mortal Kombat: Monica gains the Kung fu skills by watching a Bruce Lee film.
 * If You Won't I Will: Season 1 when Ando goes off on his own to kill Sylar.
 * I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Charlie Andrews.
 * I'm Standing Right Here: In Volume 1 when Nathan gives a campaign speech on his "mentally disturbed" little brother. Naturally, Peter punches him right in the face afterwards in the parking garage as Nathan was getting ready to leave.
 * Important Haircut: The show lives off Hair Tropes like a king. Aside from the Evil Hair Gel mentioned above, the best example was Sylar (mercifully) cutting Peter's trademark Emo bangs.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Mohinder has attacked people with things like tuning forks, syringes, microscopes, rolling chalkboards, elephant sculptures, tables, fire extinguishers, and taxi doors with an astonishing rate of success. We're nearing "In the average living room, there are 1,242 objects Chuck Norris can use to kill you, including the room itself" territory here.
 * In a Single Bound: Sylar does this in an early episode using telekinesis.
 * In Harm's Way: Bennet
 * In-Series Nickname: FLYING-MAN!!! Ironically, the character with the least interest in becoming a superhero is one of the first to get a superhero alias.
 * Infant Immortality: Subverted with.
 * Informed Flaw: For all of Volume 3's talk about Sylar's uncontrollable "hunger", he seems perfectly capable of hanging around and interacting with other supers without eating fingerbanging their brains to see what makes them tick. This seems to be the case even after he turns back fully to the side of evil (he never chows down on Luke, for example, despite on multiple occasions being given a good reason to do so. Ditto for Doyle, who he must have been lugging around for more than a day). Peter Petrelli, on the other hand, pretty much chops open the head of every single person he meets after acquiring Sylar's ability, despite (unlike Sylar) receiving no apparent tangible benefit from doing so.
 * (Though in Sylar's case this could be because )
 * This was an unforgivably poor explanation of Sylar's murderous impulses. If his power was responsible for him being evil, how do the writers explain his violent, power-lusting behavior during the second season, the entire duration of which he was powerless?
 * Addiction to power can be separate from addiction to knowledge.
 * In Volume 2 he mostly murdered and manipulated for the sake of self-preservation... and the powerlust could be interpreted as withdrawl symptoms.
 * What about in volume 5 with fake Nathan? Shouldn't he have felt urges? And also when Peter borrows fake Nathan's powers. Shouldn't Peter have been overcome by the urges again?
 * In Spite of a Nail: "I Am Become Death" shows Nathan as President and Peter as a scarred renegade -- the same as in "Five Years Gone" despite other major differences. And as of Volume Four, "Five Years Gone" seems more likely than ever.
 * In the Blood: According to Momma Patrelli, it's not Sylar's fault he's a mass murdering psycho; his powers ("The Hunger") just drive him to murder. Oh, okay...
 * Not really a retcon, per se. it doesn't contradict anything previously shown and, in all fairness, it's been made pretty clear that even without his powers he's still a killer as he was perfectly willing to help Elle kill Noah and abduct Claire after "The Eclipse" stole his abilities. It's just that his powers give him a thirst for abilities.
 * Instant Sedation: In Volume Four, the Building 26 teams stick tubes up the noses of captured "specials" that release some sort of gas that instantly sedates them. The inverse is also the case: when the tubes are removed, the victims instantly wake up again.
 * Invincible Hero: Peter. The writers realized this in Season 2; unfortunately this lead to him getting Easy Amnesia in the first half of the season and carrying a massive Idiot Ball in the second instead of having it fixed in any meaningful way. Fortunately, they learned from their mistake and reduced his power significantly in Volume 3(He can now only copy one ability at a time).
 * Invisibility: Claude. It's there in his name.
 * The Irish Mob: Peter's Aborted Arc in Season 2.
 * It Is Not Your Time: Happens to.
 * It's All About Me: Sylar.
 * It Runs in The Family: The Petrellis, patron saints of revenge and cheap powers. Also leaving behind loved ones for dead seems to be a Petrelli family trait. Then there's Sylar and his dad, who are both cold-blooded killers who have no qualms about taking life whenever it suits them. And Mohinder and Chandra; it seems that Mohinder inherited those stupidity genes. Both are unstable scientists prone to obsession who invariably end up working for evil people who they fail to recognize for what they are. It's shown in 1961 that Chandra is indirectly responsible for all the crap that has happened in the Heroes-verse, namely setting off the tragic events that led to the formation of the ruthless Company and all the nastiness they've ever done. Nice job breaking it, Papa Suresh. Mohinder is understandably chagrined when he finds out.
 * Its the Best Trope Ever: Hiro and the comic book guy agree.
 * Invincible Hero: Peter. The writers realized this in Season 2; unfortunately this lead to him getting Easy Amnesia in the first half of the season and carrying a massive Idiot Ball in the second instead of having it fixed in any meaningful way. Fortunately, they learned from their mistake and reduced his power significantly in Volume 3(He can now only copy one ability at a time).
 * Invisibility: Claude. It's there in his name.
 * The Irish Mob: Peter's Aborted Arc in Season 2.
 * It Is Not Your Time: Happens to.
 * It's All About Me: Sylar.
 * It Runs in The Family: The Petrellis, patron saints of revenge and cheap powers. Also leaving behind loved ones for dead seems to be a Petrelli family trait. Then there's Sylar and his dad, who are both cold-blooded killers who have no qualms about taking life whenever it suits them. And Mohinder and Chandra; it seems that Mohinder inherited those stupidity genes. Both are unstable scientists prone to obsession who invariably end up working for evil people who they fail to recognize for what they are. It's shown in 1961 that Chandra is indirectly responsible for all the crap that has happened in the Heroes-verse, namely setting off the tragic events that led to the formation of the ruthless Company and all the nastiness they've ever done. Nice job breaking it, Papa Suresh. Mohinder is understandably chagrined when he finds out.
 * Its the Best Trope Ever: Hiro and the comic book guy agree.