Heroes (TV series)/Tropes F-I

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • 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 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.
  • Faking the Dead: Arthur Petrelli.
  • Fallen Princess: Claire.
  • The Family for the Whole Family: The Oirish mob in Season 2.
  • 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.
  • 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. Until Volume 5.
  • 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 suffocates, then regenerates, then suffocates again, etc...
    • He is released by Hiro in the next season in exchange for helping Hiro and Ando. Before he can do much of anything, he is kidnapped by an agent of Arthur Petrelli, who steals Adam's immortality/healing power with a touch, causing him to die for good.
  • 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 to allow Sylar to continue working with him undercover.
    • Also Danko's motivation in Volume 5. Tracy is killing former members of his team, so Danko goes after her for revenge. Or maybe it's that whole Fantastic Racism thing again.
  • 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 3, 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 4 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.
  • First Girl Wins: Charlie over Yaeko. Well, in the order that Hiro meets them. Hiro met Charlie in present-time in Season 1 and went back in time and met Yaeko in fuedal Japan in Season 2.
  • 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.
  • Flung Clothing:
    • Peter throws off his Badass Longcoat in the middle of giving Sylar a beat down at Kirby Plaza.
    • Niki/Jessica stripping before tearing those mobsters to pieces.
  • Forbidden Fruit: Volume 3 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!*
  • Forceful Kiss: Season 4 of Heroes has Claire on the receiving end of this from Gretchen AND Sylar.
  • For Doom the Bell Tolls: The hilarious scene where Sylar and Elle are about to kill the rental car guy.
  • Forgot About His Powers: At the end of Season 3, Sylar kills Nathan. Angela and Noah decide to cover up the death by having Matt brainwash Sylar into thinking he's Nathan, despite the fact that Claire was elsewhere in the same building and they could have easily brought Nathan back with an infusion of Claire's blood, just as they did for Noah in Season 2.
  • Forgot I Could Fly: Nathan had to fly Peter out of Kirby Plaza. Hand waved that he was too busy trying not to explode.
  • 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 who attempts to steal Sylars healing powers to heal his cancer, gives Sylar a speech about all the things he is going to do when he is healed (pretty much all of them Evulz), which motivates Sylar (who was just pretending the whole to be caught).
    • Later while being manipulated by Adam, Peter nearly rips his brain out prying open a vault door with telekinesis where he could have easily phased through it. But that wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic nor have left him exhausted and distracted so Adam would have the opportunity to release the virus depopulation bomb.
  • For Want of a Nail: Volume 5 would not have happened had Mohinder not watched his father's film.
  • Four Is Death: Twice in Volume 3. In one of Angela's dreams, and then again in a painting done by the precognitive Botswanan Usutsu.
  • 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.
  • 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". Inverted with the "I Am Become Death" version of Sylar as a family man and father.
  • Future Me Scares Me: The Trope Namer, as seen immediately above. Hiro says this in "Five Years Gone".
  • Gambit Pileup
  • Gender Bender: What's the first thing Sylar turns into after getting the ability to shapeshift? You got it...
  • Gene Hunting: Claire in Volume 1, Sylar in Volume 4.
  • Genocide Backfire: The whole cock-up 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. In Volume 3, he appeared as sort of a literal ghost.
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Goo-Goo Godlike: Baby Touch n'Go.
  • Good Feels Good: Or so Sylar tells Peter...
  • 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, ever since he gained Regeneration, Sylar is giving Claire a run for her money, with getting shot, his shoulder dislocated, his throat slashed, etc.
  • 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 realize 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 3 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.
  • Hanlon's Razor: Future Peter. Especially that corollary of any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
  • 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.
  • 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 1, 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 ear-buds that aren't connected to anything to prevent people from trying to talk to her.
  • Heel Face Revolving Door:
    • Sylar starting in Volume 3. So many in fact that you think he'd get whiplash.
      • Finally resolved near the end of the series as Face.
    • Also Nathan Petrelli throughout the show. But then, he IS a politician...
    • Tracy Strauss: she's started as a political ally to Nathan Petrelli with a penchant for turning journalists into popsicles, who then jumps ship after being told she's a synthetic super-powered triplet and becomes Arthur Petrelli's office bitch, who then tries to "help" Peter and the others at the start of Volume 4 after Arthur kicks the bucket, who then breaks out of Building 26 captivity and is shot, whilst frozen, by Danko, who then returns as some killer ice queen/water-controlling wench with a serious grudge against anyone from Building 26, including Noah Bennet, who then goes a bit soft and gooey around Bennet when he offers her clam chowder after watching Danko get sliced to ribbons. 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.
    • Angela Petrelli could be an alternate title for the Trope.
  • 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 3.
  • 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: Maury Parkman, of all people.
    • Then subverted. D.L. takes a bullet from Linderman to save Niki. Enter Season 2, he is dead, and we are lead to assume that is how he died. But then, a flashback to four months ago has him make a full recovery from the hospital, and is indeed well enough to go fight fires and stuff... only to get shot by some random crackhead with the hots for Niki.
    • Don't forget Niki Sanders, who tries to rescue Monica from a burning building at the end of Volume 2, without her super-strength. Monica gets out, Niki doesn't.
    • Daphne is shot trying to rescue Claire, Matt, and the others. She initially survived, but later dies from sepsis because Danko had her removed from the medical facility.
    • Hana Gitelman does it twice... but on the supplementary comic books.
    • And Traci apparently sacrifices herself in a spectacularly permanent-looking fashion to prevent Danko from killing Micah/Rebel. The Volume 4 finale shows that she got better.
    • Nathan Petrelli flies off with his critically nuclear little brother Peter in the Volume 1 season finale. He also "gets better" after a sense in the next season... Then at the end of Volume 4 trying to atone for this Volume's douchery he goes up against Sylar by himself (ditching Peter in the middle of the battle) and gets himself killed.
    • Matt, after having his body possessed by Sylar, uses his ability to arouse everyone else's suspicions about him, leading the Texas police force to deploy a dozen men with guns to form a circle around him. In order to stop Sylar from going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the people who stole his body, Matt makes the cops think Sylar has a gun, leading them to open fire, and effectively taking out both Sylar and Matt.
      • Too bad that Peter ruins everything.
  • Heroic Suicide
    • Eden, who kills herself to prevent Sylar from gaining her ability.
    • Peter also tries to pull one in "How to Stop an Exploding Man", but is saved at the last minute by Nathan.
  • 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. Every time Hiro stops him, he just does it again at the next party.
  • Hitman with a Heart: Edgar is an assassin who wants to quit.
  • Hollywood Japan[context?]
  • 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.
  • 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 Sylar being able to take over Matt's body. 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.
  • If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten: Happens to Hiro at one point.
  • If You Won't, I Will: Season 1 when Ando goes off on his own to kill Sylar.
  • 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.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal:
    • Claire, but other characters fall into this as well.
    • Parkman says this to Daphne in Volume 4. 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. Of course, now he's got Sylar living in his head, this obviously won't last...
    • Believe it or not, Sylar.
  • 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 Know Mortal Kombat: Monica gains the Kung fu skills by watching a Bruce Lee film.
  • I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Charlie Andrews.
  • I Lied: Done by Matt. To Sylar.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • In a Single Bound: Sylar does this in an early episode using telekinesis.
  • Infant Immortality: Subverted with the onscreen death of future-Sylar's child, Noah.
  • 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 finger-banging 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 he spent Volume 3 working to get it under control for the sake of his (fake) family.
    • 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 power-lust could be interpreted as withdrawal 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 Harm's Way: Bennet tried to retire after the fall of the Company. It didn't take.
  • 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 4, "Five Years Gone" seems more likely than ever.
  • Instant Sedation: In Volume 4, 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.
  • 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 see. 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.
  • 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 Hiro.
  • 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.
  • It's All About Me: Sylar. In his mind, Angela pretending to be his mother is worse than her trying to destroy New York.
  • Its the Best Trope Ever: Hiro and the comic book guy agree.
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