Heroes (TV series)/Headscratchers/Hiro and Ando

For over 350 years no one questions why the hilt of a famous, nay legendary, sword has Open Ando on it and tried to open it?

 * Hiro's handwriting is terrible. People just thought the sword was scratched, and it just happened to look like kanji.
 * Nobody called Ando had read the inscription?
 * Ando himself should have read the inscription when Hiro took the sword from Linderman's place.
 * Meanwhile in the Future. It didn't have the inscription, because Hiro hadn't inscribed it "yet". Try not to think too hard about it.
 * Hiro gave the sword to Yaeko before he returned to the future. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect Adam to regenerate, kill her and take the sword. From there, I figured Adam had the sword in his possession right up until he was locked away. Then it was given to Linderman for safekeeping. Neither of them had much reason to inspect the sword; Adam would have known it was done by Hiro and just ignored it, and Linderman would have left it alone out of reverence for Adam.

Okay, here's the plot point in Heroes that I don't understand at all.
Future!Hiro determines that the pivotal change in history that he needs to make to prevent NYC from being destroyed is to tell Peter "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!" - because it was Claire's regenerative abilities that allowed Sylar to survive his katana wound and still explode. He goes back to his own time and discovers that that wasn't sufficient, because -Peter- exploded instead. But then he doesn't change it any further - instead, Present!Hiro goes to that timeline, and sees everything. Which means the only difference from that timeline and the show's is that Hiro went to that timeline and saw that future. So how did -that- cause the one difference that prevented that future, ie, Nathan growing a conscience and flying in to save the day? I guess he -did- go up to Nathan and call him a very bad man... that's pretty weak, but I guess it could have planted a seed of doubt.... meh. It still Just Bugs Me as a plot point.
 * Peter was exploding rather than Sylar. Nathan, being a reasonably one-dimensional character who is generally apethetic, nonetheless cares about family (because everyone does in TV) so he was moved into action he wouldn't have been moved into for a stranger, even with New York (and therefore his family) in danger. Also, if Nathan had picked up Sylar he wouldn't have survived because Sylar can't fly
 * Well, there you have it. "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World." Nathan never met Claire in that universe because Claire was dead. Meeting Claire was the reason he and his mother grew tiny little slivers of conscience. That's logical, yes? Hiro convinces Peter to save Claire, Claire convinces Nathan to stop the 'bomb'. First season Heroes, if you think about it, generally does make some kind of sense.
 * I believe that the idea is that because he jumped into the future, Hiro wasn't at Kirby Plaza in the time just before the explosion, and he wasn't able to stab Sylar. I imagine that Sylar, not being badly wounded, was able to prevent Nathan from flying Peter off. Thus, the explosion happened at ground level and destroyed NYC.
 * I'm not sure Hiro's time travel works that way, but either way, Sylar was still alive in that timeline and would have been killed by the explosion if that was the case. But also: given where they were when the bomb went off, how did Sylar acquire Candace and DL's abilities in that timeline? I think this is a case of time travel being treated as a way to present a What If more than a logical extrapolation of events, which could be a trope of its own (I'm looking at you, Ultimate Fantastic Four).
 * I've heard people speculate that Hiro caused the explosion to happen sooner when he attacked Sylar at his mom's house. Had he not done that, Sylar would have spent several hours crying over his mom's death rather than immediately starting on his plan to cause the explosion. So, in the FYG timeline, maybe the explosion happened after DL and Candace were away from Kirby Plaza (as seen in the second episode, it did initially happen in the daytime). As for Sylar surviving, well, * fan wanks* he has moved extremely fast a few times (for instance, 7 Minutes to Midnight where he got out of the Burnt Toast Diner seconds after killing Charlie, or the first season finale where he quickly moved behind Peter from some hidden location). Maybe he was able to use whatever ability that was to get to a safe location.
 * Oooh good points! I'd forgotten they showed the original explosion happening in the daytime! My JBM has been quelled... although I am still a little curious about the exact details of the "original" series of events (on a related note: so pissed off at how every time it looks like the Elder Heroes are going to start talking about what specifically their "sins" are, they get evasive and don't mention any specifics beyond the plague...justifiably evasive, perhaps, but still!). And yeah, he unexpectedly appears/disappears -quite- a few times - I'm inclined to think he has short-range teleportation, m'self. Maybe Offscreen Teleportation as a superpower, even.
 * Personally, I think that it's more a form of superspeed, as he never teleported out of his cell at Primatech and when he pulled that dissapearing trick to get out of the Bennet house in Distractions, we saw the door fly open.
 * I think it's either a case of a camouflage power (Sylar stays invisible as long as he doesn't move) or some sort of subtle mind control that makes people's minds ignore him, like a suggestion "nothing to see here". I've found at least five cases of Sylar disappearing or appearing out of nowhere: most notably when Bennet entered Sylar's empty concrete cell at Primatech in the first season and suddenly Sylar stood behind him, then when Peter entered Mohinder's apartment and found Mohinder on the ceiling, and finally when Sylar suddenly appeared in Kirby Plaza and tapped Bennet on the shoulder from behind, and we had previously seen the Plaza from above and it completely empty save for Bennet and Peter. Also the scene when Elle runs after the wounded Sylar in season 2 and loses him although he staggered off down the hallway only seconds ago. Something similar happens when Bennet shoots at Sylar in Bennet's house, Sylar runs off and Bennet orders the Haitian to find him, but the Haitian comes back only seconds later and reports that Sylar is gone without a trace. Perhaps the Haitian should have activated his power dampening field...
 * Um, when Elle ran after a wounded Sylar, his powers were still being suppressed by the virus. And I still think it is some sort of ability to move very fast. He mainly uses it to appear or disappear, but there was a scene in Homecoming where Sylar was at the bottom of the stairs, then it cut away for a second or two, and when it cut back he was on the top of the stairs right next to Peter. As for Distractions, it appears that the Haitian's power dampening field is always on unless he purposely decides to exclude someone from it, so I find it much more plausible that Sylar was able to get away really quickly, and he did seem to get out of the house faster than a normal person could. And besides, a camouflage power wouldn't have helped him to survive the explosion at all, which is what this whole discussion is about.
 * "...when Elle ran after a wounded Sylar, his powers were still being suppressed by the virus." Whoops, you're right. But then he wouldn't have been able to move with superspeed either. Still, I stand by my impression that Sylar has a camouflage power. There was nowhere to hide in that cell at Primatech, nor at Kirby Plaza. Peter even remarked on how Sylar seems to be able to "hide in plain sight" in that episode. That's IMO far creepier an ability than superspeed... besides Sylar may still gain superspeed a lÃ¡ The Flash in Volume 3 because one of the new villains in the trailer for Volume 3 which was recently shown at Jules Vernes Heroes convention in France apparently has superspeed powers, and there's rumors Sylar will be snacking on a couple of them while at the Company prison. - As for how Sylar survived the explosion in the original timeline, that was the timeline when he had Claire's regenerative powers; no need for fanwanking how he could have gotten away, he didn't need to.
 * No, I'm talking about the timeline seen in the episode Five Years Gone, where Peter saved Claire but he ended up exploding. Sylar didn't have regenerative powers at that point in that timeline (not that they would have done him any good that close to the explosion), so, yes, it is necessary to fanwank how he got away. As for hiding in his cell, HRG thought that Sylar was under the sheet on the table in the middle of the room, so if Sylar had crouched down below the window, or even used telekinesis to pin himself onto the ceiling, HRG probably wouldn't have noticed at first. Sure, we had an overhead shot of Kirby Plaza where we didn't see Sylar, but he could have been hiding behind a pillar or a fountain or something, then zipped behind Peter when his back was turned. Yes, Peter said that he thought Sylar was hiding in plain sight, but since when does Peter know anything about Sylar's powers? In the episode .07%, Peter turned invisible and Sylar said, "Interesting. I can't wait to try that one." That'd be a rather odd thing for him to say if he had a power that basically did the same thing. And, again, a camouflage power can't explain how he got up the steps so fast in Homecoming.
 * Future Peter admits to being the one who exploded NYC, not Syler. If Syler wasn't stabed, he would have prevented Nathin from flying Peter off to a safe distance. This still doesn't explain how all the heros besides Peter and Clair would have survived the blast however. Chock one up for Plot Armor, or maybe Hiro's teleportation.
 * Please read through the discussion above. All of that has been explained.
 * It was thought that Claire being alive would mean that Sylar didn't have regeneration powers. But actually, Claire being alive meant that she was around to guilt Nathan into saving Peter. That was the change that saved New York.
 * Except she was also alive in the FYG timeline, and Peter still exploded then. Hiro stabbing Sylar was the most important change (and it's not like they couldn't have just killed Peter or something if Nathan hadn't showed up).
 * This troper missed a lot of "Five Years Gone", but at what point did Sylar kill Nathan in the FYG timeline? Because if Sylar had killed Nathan pre-explosion in the FYG timeline, Sylar could've flown away, and with no Nathan, there would be no Nathan to save Peter. Therefore, Peter would've exploded at Ground Zero, and Sylar, later killing Candace, would've been able to masquerade as Nathan at the Ground Zero memorial.
 * Regarding the whole 'How did Sylar survive the blast?' thing, I think that those who have Ted's nuclear capabilities are therefore immune to them. Nobody knew what would happen to Ted if he exploded, if he would die or simply brush some dust off his shoulder and carry on. Since Peter was the one who exploded AND he has the power to regenerate it was definite that he would live anyway. Sylar killing Ted and stealing his ability could therefore have made him invunerable to the explosion. Plus there's that whole cockroach theme [you never know what Sylar has up his sleeve].
 * The Heroes web-comics String Theory shows how Future Hiro did stab Sylar and Sylar regenerated, explaining how he went on to figure out how it was Claire who gave Sylar that power and how he concluded that stopping Sylar from gaining that power would prevent the Dark Future of Five Years Gone from happening.
 * The key to this whole thing goes back to Isaac. When Sylar found him, he had painted multiple paintings showing himself dying at Sylar's hands. This suggested that Isaac was trying to find a future path where he didn't die at Sylar's hands or at least one where his death would result in a moral victory. It was confirmed later, at the very start of the final episode of Season One, after Sylar killed Isaac and took his power and tried painting the future for himself that Sylar had a vision of himself exploding and destroying New York. Horrified that he might take innocent lives, he called Mohinder to ask for help but hung up when he realized Mohinder was trying to call the police on the other line. Sylar later, during the fight with Peter, admitted that he manipulated events so that Peter would be the one to lose control and go nuclear... How he did this isn't clear... unless you account for the idea that Isaac's power allowed him to consider multiple possible futures and figure out how to bring one particular path about. This would neatly undo any guess-work that Future Hiro did about stopping Sylar from exploding although it wouldn't stop Hiro from being able to kill Sylar with a sword.
 * Sylar had a vision of someone exploding in New York. He simply assumed it was himself, because just previously he had painted himself stealing Ted's power (the man with the glowing hands). Peter had a vision of himself exploding, while Sylar merely saw someone explode in the future and jumped to conclusions. A theme of Season 1 was that you should beware of visions and prophecies, because they never turn out quite as you expected and are prone to misinterpretation (a theme common in Greek legends, too). The writers repeated this pattern in Season 2 with the painting of Bennet so Bennet jumped to conclusions and forbade Claire to date West... only it turned out things happened exactly as shown, but events unfolded completely differently than Bennet had thought.
 * Except that - as mentioned above - Future Hiro specifically stabbed Sylar, who healed, and then exploded in the original Dark Future. So there was obviously some point where Sylar POTENTIALLY could have become the bomb.
 * I think I can explain this and make it real simple. We know from the comics that in the original alternate future, Hiro worked with Peter and Noah to undermine the American Government's interment programs. Future Hiro figured out from talking to Noah that Sylar had taken Claire's power and that was what made Sylar heal when Hiro tried to kill him (the comics outright show Hiro stabbing Sylar and then say that Sylar exploded). He also knew that Peter - by virtue of sharing Hiro's powers - would have the same Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory, whichwould allow Hiro to go to a point where before he met Peter "for the first time" and tell him something vague enough to change the future without risking a rift.
 * Apart from the fact that Claire survives the attack by Sylar, Future Hiro's trip changes the entire course of the present and (eventually) the Future depicted in Five Years Gone with several major details being changed. Without Future Hiro giving Peter the encouragement he needed to go back to Isaac, Peter may well have given up on talking to Mohinder and Isaac at that point. This would - in turn - have kept Peter from being there to pick up the phone calls from Hiro that Isaac was ignoring
 * (Hiro and Isaac probably would have joined up, what with Hiro and Ando trying to get to NYC, but this sped things up a bit)
 * This indirectly caused Eden (who was watching Mohinder) to take a serious interest in Peter's story, which lead to Isaac getting cleaned up and eventually getting control of his power
 * Remember - in the original second episode - Isaac was still scruffy and unshaven when Hiro found his body as opposed to his clean-cut self during his eventual, actual death.
 * This also - indirectly - put Ted on a path to meeting Peter and Peter absorbing his power, thus risking becoming a human bomb.
 * If Peter hadn't saved Claire, he wouldn't have been arrested on suspicion of Jackie Wilcox's murder. If it hadn't been for Matt interviewing Peter while he was being held, Matt never would have gotten the idea to interview Claire and Noah and become suspicious about what Primatech Paper is hiding. If it hadn't been for Matt's botched raid on Primatech, he never would have lost out on his new FBI job. And if it hadn't been for that, Matt never would have taken Ted and Hana seriously when they approached him about going after Bennet directly. Which - even ignoring that without Claire to protect Bennet never would have had a reason to go on the run from The Company in the first place - means that Matt, Ted and Bennet would never have fled to New York together.
 * Of course this does nothing to answer the question of just how Sylar found Ted in the original alternate future so he could have the nuclear bomb power... but it still holds up pretty well as an explanation for how Future Hiro indirectly did stop Sylar from becoming the bomb but changed things so that Peter became the bomb instead.
 * How is it that Sylar "regenerated", if he doesn't kill Claire until five years after the bomb? Wait... Perhaps Future!Hiro's meddling in the subway change his future slightly, so that Claire survived, but Peter went off instead of Sylar, because present Hiro was out of the timeline due to his five-year time-jump, (Like in Episode 2, where Ando said that Hiro had been gone for weeks) and was therefore not there to stab Sylar or guilt Nathan. Wait... if that's the case, and present Hiro is displaed from the timeline, then how is Future!Hiro still there? Shouldn't he also be gone, since Present Hiro is time-jumped? Maybe Future!Hiro has Time Traveller's Immunity, like in Chrono Trigger, and therefore isn't effected by his own time-travelling (Hiro would certainly appreciate the parallel)? Maybe that's why he's still there, and still remembers Sylar regenerating and blowing up? I... I think I need to lie down...

If Ando had simply explained to Daphne that the formula will destroy the world and that her boss is probably planning to do so...
...instead of being sidetracked into an argument with Hiro over being his sidekick, then the entire end-of-the-world mess could probably be avoided. Poor Communication Kills indeed.
 * Ando has no credibility in Daphne's eyes because Hiro is a retard and still thinks life is nothing but a comic book. Sad thing is, Ando seemed to be getting through to her until Hiro cried like a baby. Dammit, he used to be my favorite character, now his brain rolled out of his head and now I can't wait for future Ando to fry his sorry ass with lightning.

Why didn't Hiro just kill Knox?

 * Why did he kill his best friend instead of taking that sword and decapitating Knox? Or his nemesis? Or both of them? Something screams "wtf" about that whole scene.
 * If Hiro killed Knox and Daphne, he wouldn't have any leads left on where/how to recover the formula. I am perplexed as to why he didn't just kill Daphne (she thinks little enough of him that he could easily get the element of surprise with his powers), tell Knox "I just killed a woman who is supposed to be too fast to be hit. My friend stays with me. If you have a problem with that, we can see if you can outrun me."
 * This is one of those things you're going to have to wait a week before you really complain about it. I really doubt Ando is dead. It's probably a trick that'll be revealed at the beginning of the next episode.
 * Exactly. Adam is in the immediate area, after all, and I bet he'd like nothing more than to be able to turn Hiro's best friend against him. At this point, that would pretty much involve an injection of Adam-blood and pointing out the obvious: "Yeah, you know your buddy? He just stabbed you."
 * Or maybe Hiro used a combination of stopping time and teleporting to fake the killing of his friend. He is a master of time and space after all.
 * All of the above: Confirmed.
 * He could have killed Knox, then popped back into the "present" with his head. Doubtless that would've got the message across. Or he could've popped back to before the bar scene.
 * "He could have killed Knox, then popped back into the "present" with his head." Presenting someone with their own decapitated head. BEST. THREAT. EVER.

Why does Hiro ever have problems, ever?
This happens lots of times, but the one that got me most is with the secret formula in the safe. We see him screwing around with his clock, speeding up and reversing time. He makes a decision and opens the safe. Daphne steals the formula. Hiro chases her, rather than simply rewinding time to bring her back. She gets away. Of course, if he was smart, he could have opened the safe in stopped time to prevent any problems.

Basically, it seems to me that the writers made a big mistake on day 1. Hiro's power can solve the vast majority of problems very easily, so they keep having to slip him the Idiot Ball.


 * The key rebuttal here is that Hiro's powers rarely work as expected or desired.
 * First season, Hiro's control over his power was very iffy and he spent half the season depowered or thinking he was powerless.
 * Second season, he spent half the season trying to fix a problem he thought he had caused by going back in time (i.e. Kensei fails to save the village) and the other half trying to solve the problems caused by what he did trying to restore the past in the first place.
 * Third Season, he concluded - quite rightly, I'd say, based on his experiences in Season 2 - that trying to go back in time just winds up causing more trouble than it is worth and he decided against doing it ever again... except when he needed to save Ando's life by arranging the means by which Ando could fake his death or when one of the 9th Wonder comics said it was what he had to do.
 * Note that saving Ando didn't involve actually changing the past, only sneaking in some advance preparation for actions yet to be taken in the present. If he'd killed Ando for real, the first time around, then gone back and arranged matters so it never happened, that'd change the past and break his resolution not to do that.
 * That's related to the above point. If Hiro used his powers effectively, taking time to think (in stopped time, if necessary), the show would be over in 5 minutes. So the writers have to come up with reasons that he doesn't, and those reasons are becoming increasingly implausible. He's unskilled in the first season, OK. Then he's depowered, then he thinks he's depowered, then he thinks he's 10, then everybody's depowered, etc. Or he simply fails to apply his powers in obvious ways.
 * Actually, I'd say the key rebuttal would be that Hiro's powers don't actually work the way the first Troper of this JBM depicts them. When he was playing with the clock, I'm certain he was playing with the clock - using a small field of time-control centralised around the clock, similar to the time he reversed the bullet and nothing else. If he was really throwing time in general back and forth like that, Ando would be speeding in and out of his office like he was on rails. (And if you say that that didn't happen because Hiro picked to use a range of times in which Ando didn't come in... then Ando wouldn't have come in at all, as he only stopped playing with the clock then.) Now, it may be theoretically possible for Hiro to reverse time on a grander scale, but I'm pretty sure that he wasn't even close to that level at the time of his most recent de-powering. Keep in mind, at that point he couldn't even slow time reliably and thoroughly enough to keep Daphne frozen. As for why he didn't just stop time immediately after taking the formula out of the safe: he wanted to talk the whole thing over with Ando, and he's shown no capacity to bring other people with him into a timestop. The only person he's interacted with then is Peter. But, as for not using a "time out" to figure things out as a regular tactic... well, besides the "talking things over" bit from before, I've got nothing. ^_^

Hiro's "Not-a" Eulogy for his father bugs me.
I know it's probably just me, but when I listen to Hiro, Ando, and the others speak in Japanese, I pay at least as much attention to how they're saying the things as the subtitles, and the Eulogy really bothered me for two reasons. First, Japanese Funerals are ridiculously formal, kicking how one speaks to even friends up to at least -masu level, and him speaking in a very, and I mean very informal way is actually kind of jarring. Second, what he said is not the kind of thing one says at a funeral. Yeesh, he sounds like Angela's "recently" to Matt meant that she was his mother, instead of "Mama." (It's the only way that Idiot Ball could exist.) I think I know the reason for this (Did Not Do the Research) but at the same time, there is proof that seems nearly contradictory.

How much longer until Peter and Ando actually try things?
I'm willing to accept that Peter can only hold one power at a time, and am happy to see how much less of an Idiot Hero he's become now that they don't need to Deus Exit Machina him all the time. But so far, we've only ever seen him use synthetic powers, without even attempting to absorb something from the always-more-powerful natural mutants... not even Claire, for cryin' out loud. And on the other hando, we have Ando, who proclaims his ability "worthless"... even though we've seen him use it a grand total of four times, and one of those was just a demonstration of the pretty lights. We've never seen him even try to use it on a non-mutant, so we have no idea what kind of effect it could have.
 * In fairness, Ando has only had his powers for three episodes and isn't quite as hip to becoming a professional superhero as Hiro is, so I can see him sitting on his abilities for three months and not experimenting with them. And Peter - based on what we've seen - hasn't exactly been the most social person for the last three months and was actively avoiding his family. And though he may have been - for most of the series - The Grand Exalted Holder Of The Idiot Ball - even Peter can see problems with testing yourself to see if you have a healing factor.
 * To say nothing of the problems if Homeland Security is monitoring his phone and he calls up his niece saying "Come over to my place. I need to touch you." (I know... I know... I'm ashamed of that joke too.)
 * Peter seemed to be aware of what his new ability entailed, as he immediately reached over to Mohinder when he needed to break his bonds, so he's presumably done some sort of testing. As for only using it on synthetic mutations...the chance hasn't come up yet I guess? Or maybe there's a plot twist they're saving, like the revelation that he can permanently store natural abilities, or can't take them at all. But if not, all he needs to do is get his hands on Sylar, since he's apparently an empath now, all should be well.

Why do all the characters pronounce Ando's name wrong?
It's one thing for a native English speaker to read "Ando" and pronounce it "and-oh", but these characters have almost all learned his name by hearing him or Hiro say it, so how are they not pronouncing it "ahn-doh"?
 * I have an unusual first name for the area I live in that also has an "ah" instead of a "yeah" (also, I'm not a linguist?), but most people end up pronouncing it that way even though they learn it because I say it to them, so this may be Truth in Television. Alternatively, it may be on the actors, who all did learn his name from reading it in a script.

How did Hiro and Ando get to India?
They told us that they are monitoring the credit cards and bank accounts of everyone on their list of "terrorists". So how would they have the money to buy plane tickets?
 * Ando isn't on the list though and it's been implied that Hiro gave him access to the corporate expense account.
 * Also, realistically, Hiro is rich enough that some of his money must be in places the US Government doesn't have control over.
 * In the same vein, most of Hiro's funds would be in Japanese banks. It would be a bit difficult for the US government to hold much sway over those.

Also, even if you assume that Ando brought his and Hiro's passports with him when he came to the USA with Daphne, given that Nathan's Nazis have the ability to identify Sylar from three seconds of security camera footage as he drove past it, you have to assume they have similarly strict security at the airports that would easily spot Hiro.
 * Maybe Matt went with them to "see them off" at the airport and used his powers to ease their way onto the plane, like he did to get back to the USA from Africa in Season 3, despite having no money, no passport and an unquarantined animal in a cage.
 * For that matter, Matt could have convinced someone to forge those documents, or chartered them a plane.

Hiro's "rigid" thinking.
Hiro has been bugging me for a while now, because his character seems to be undoing all of his development since Season 1. Yeah, he started as an Ascended Fanboy who had a childlike view of the world shaped by his comic books, but he's since had two loves-of-his-life, lost both, created his own archnemesis, almost single-handedly kicked off the bad news in Volume 3 by opening the safe he was specifically told not to, and learned that he is dying. Despite the life lessons he seemed to be learning by taking a backseat to Ando, protecting Baby Touch-and-Go, and learning not to use his powers as a crutch, he's acting exactly the same way in Season 4. Samuel has one conversation with him and he immediately abandons his rather sensible "Don't monkey with the past" policy in less than an episode. And as soon as he abandons that, he immediately falls back on his powers again. When he sees Tadahashi throw himself off the roof for losing his job, his only thought is to keep going back to the past to sabotage the copier to prevent the guy from Xeroxing his butt. Over and over again. While that * was* a Crowning Moment of Funny, one would think that if Hiro Nakamura thought about it for a few seconds, he might come up with another way to save Tadahashi's job with Nakamura Industries.

Why did Hiro have to make a deal with Sylar?
Back in the present, Peter has gained healing powers. Hiro knows about this (in fact the whole point was to use them to save Hiro, which he still hasn't done). Surely the sensible plan to save Charlie would have been to take her into the future and have Peter cure her rather than trust an extermely powerful serial killer with a clear motivation to kill them both, not to mention the danger of derailing history. Even if he was afraid to teleport her in her current state, there was nothing to stop him from going into the future alone and bringing Peter back.
 * Actually, Peter never told Hiro the details of his plan. All Peter said was that maybe destiny had brought Hiro to him, so that he could save Hiro before taking Hiro's power and telling Hiro to stay put until he got back. So Hiro didn't actually know about Peter's plan to go to Noah, find a healer, take their power and then go back to Hiro.
 * Which is even MORE nonsensical given that Peter could have found the healer and teleported them both back to just a few seconds after Peter left rather than taking the power and then waiting on a plane to get him back to New York. But that's a whole other complaint.
 * It's possible Peter accidentally took Jeremy's power when Jeremy was healing him, the same way he accidentally took Emma's while he was saving her. Since he was gravely injured, he probably didn't have the same control as usual. Which only raises the further question of why he didn't just freeze time the second the kid started shooting and take his gun away. But the show has proven time and again that Hiro's power comes with the Idiot Ball debuff.
 * It seems fair to say that of ALL the possible options available to someone with time travel - Hiro decided on one that was idiotic. There was literally nothing to stop Sylar hearing what Hiro had to say and then just murdering him AND Charlie. All you can say about Hiro's plan is that it didn't require him to travel in time. Also, Hiro is at a point in history where he KNOWS that Sylar is going to murder a lot more people... but I guess that doesn't matter. Oh and the fact that removing Charlie from the past (rather than let her get murdered) seems to have no effect on the time line... you'd think a nifty power like perfect memory might have some impact given Sylar's importance... but then again, Ando and Hiro's sister getting together seemed to have zero impact on the world... so much for the butterfly effect...
 * For the question about why Peter didn't just freeze time... I thought he did, but just did it too late. I vaguely remember there being some matrix-style special effects going on when Peter got shot.
 * He did stop time and teleport in, just as the kid was firing. However, considering that this is Peter, I didn't actually have any trouble believing this scene. Also, as for Hiro's options: he couldn't use teleportation or time travel in this episode. As he told Emma, "lately, time and space have been the master of him". Considering that Samuel made such a big deal of Hiro taking them back to the carnvial, and then Hiro continues to have trouble time-travelling throughout the next episode, and then he refers to his time travel being 'not so good' and him ending up ten minutes ahead of his mark, I thought this would have been clear.

Why didn't Hiro think to go back in time to his mother, who had healing powers?

 * Granting that she died in his arms at one point in the past, there's nothing to stop Hiro from going back to slightly earlier when his mother was healthy and asking her to heal him and Charlie there. It's not like this would abuse the time-stream anymore than what Hiro has been doing so far in saving Charlie.
 * For the same reason that he used time-stop instead of teleport during his duel with Sylar: during this episode, he couldn't control his teleportation. He couldn't teleport or time-travel. Considering that Samuel made such a big deal of Hiro taking them back to the carnvial, and then Hiro continues to have trouble time-travelling throughout the next episode, and then he refers to his time travel being 'not so good' and him ending up ten minutes ahead of his mark, I thought this would have been clear.

No Small Butterflies
Ando tells Hiro that the reason he can't save Charlie is because "there are no small butterflies", meaning everything he does will affect the future in many different ways. Sure, except when Hiro goes back in time and makes Ando and Kimiko a couple without affecting ANYTHING else in the entire show, and when Hiro goes back in time, cures Charlie, insults Sylar and completely fucks up his own past, and when Hiro goes back in time to stop a man from committing suicide... seriously, this show has the most inconsistent time-travel rules of anything, ever.
 * In this troper's opinion the part that JBM is that Charlie not only failed to use her power to improve her situation or the world's in any way, she barely seems to recognize that she could. She has perfect memory! She could become a multi-billionaire with just a few years of lead time, let alone 65. She could have stood in Daley Plaza to see if there really was a shooter on the grassy knoll. She could have decoded an NFL defense's hand signals even better than Bill Belichick (and legally too). And so on. But she is content to be a riveter and a mother, even after society changes enough to allow her to break that mold.
 * Could be she wanted as much of a normal life as possible. I do know someone who is in MENSA who never rose above E5 (5th lowest rank)in the army, he just wanted the life he had.

Where did the "second" Future Hiro go?
Okay, so 2006 Hiro and Ando teleport into the distopian future at the same time as Future Hiro returns. Future Hiro is the one from the timeline where a Future Hiro never told Peter to "save the cheerleader; save the world". Obviously, New York still blew up. So, Future Hiro decided to alter history, built the string map to figure out what event would have the most effect, and then traveled back to tell Peter the message. After Peter got the message, he got a bunch of the heroes together, Claire was saved, and then Hiro and Ando travel in to the future but presumably there would be a timeline in which they wouldn't. A Future Hiro of this second timeline then makes the string map in the loft and leaves to change something (presumably not "save the cheerleader" because in his timeline the first Future Hiro would have already done that), when 2006 Hiro and Ando and the first Future Hiro arrive. What the frak happened to the second Future Hiro?