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Heroes (TV series)/Headscratchers/The Haitian: Difference between revisions
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*** I always assumed the Haitian erased memories by damaging synaptic pathways, which is consistent with the fact that Peter was able to regenerate his lost memories by healing his own brain in Season 2. Since Tim Kring has stated that all the superpowers are controlled by the brain, the power-dampening field of the Haitian means he can somehow interfere with synaptic activities with pinpoint precision, so that people's thinking processes work normally but superpowers don't work (at least those that are psychic in nature, like telekinesis or telepathy, as even the Haitian couldn't stop Nathan from flying away, and cellular regeneration must be located in every cell in the body, otherwise the healing blood plot would make no sense.) But yeah, plotwise memory erasing and power neutralizing are sufficiently dissimilar that if this were a roleplaying game, I'd say that character has two distinct powers, not just one.
**** All powers in ''Heroes'' are based in the brain. That's why Sylar is able to steal powers by doing something with the brains of his victims. And yes, this is one of many reasons why the healing blood plot doesn't make any sense. Telekinesis is no more "psychic" in nature than flight is, and the Haitian was also able to suppress Hiro and Peter's powers. The Haitian probably let Nathan fly away, since he was working for Angela Petrelli at the time. Otherwise, the Haitian's power seems to be most effective on active powers and less on passive powers. He wasn't able to stop Ted from exploding because Ted was losing control, and he needed infared goggles to see Claude because invisibility only requires active control when it's turned on or off.
**** You're misunderstanding what the above troper meant by "psychic". All the powers are based in the brain, but there are still those which use the ''mind'' more or less. For instance, both Eden's hypnosis and Matt's telepathy affect(ed) the mind directly, while Hiro's timespace manipulation requires "wishing very hard", and Peter needs to concentrate on particular people to mimic them when they're not around. On the other hand, the powers he couldn't nullify - Nathan's flight, Ted's radioactivity, Claude's invisibility - seem to affect the ''body'' more, working out of some kind of reflex rather than mental concentration. And it's the mind as a whole that the Haitian controls, not just memory (see: erasing people's minds into complete blank slates in the webcomic, not even leaving instinct left). Of course, this does add a question for the new series, as he can apparently {{spoiler|also nullify Daphne's speed enhancement}}. And I'm not going to try to come up with an explanation for why the Haitian's power works like that; my forte is [[Magic
**** ...though, to break that self-imposed rule for a moment. I'm going to have to disagree with your comment about the brain base, because it sounds like you're saying it's ''exclusively'' in the brain. It's not. Ever since the first season, which you can't call too much of a retcon, there've been example of it being pegged as genetic: Mohinder's list being based on a "genetic marker" retrieved from Sylar's spinal fluid, Peter being described as using his power to re-sequence his own DNA to match the desired powers, Bennett referring to Sylar having the genes for telekinesis (or something to that effect)... yes, the powers are in the brain, but they're not ''only'' in the brain.
**** According to what this troper has heard, the Haitian has the ability to manipulate the mind, which can be used both in terms of removing memories and stopping power usage - so it's not really two powers so much as one power being applied in multiple ways.
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