Brian C. Russell

The story of gods and goddesses always involve strife.  There’s always a few gods (and goddesses) to start the party, then they have kids, and their kids generally succeed them in gruesome fashions because of power, greed, etc.  Or, a group of gods finds another group of gods from another land… and war ensues.

This is the general story of gods and goddesses in mythology.  In the Greek mythology, the Titans were the ruling gods of the land with the leader being Kronos.  Well, in general, you don’t hear about the Titans as much because they were quickly overthrown by Kronos’ own son, Zeus.  In Norse, there were the Aesir and the Vanir (oh, and humans).  They didn’t get along… so much so that the Aesir is pretty much all you hear about.  I’m sure you’ve heard of Odin… or maybe his son, Thor?  (Especially since the comic book line of Thor comics, is actually fairly decent to the terms from the myth itself.)

The Bible has different versions of gods in it too.  There the most popular Baal (although, upon further examination, this name actually just means “god”), there were others too though.  One of which, Molech, I found while perusing the concordance in my Bible who people sacrificed children to in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which the word Gehenna comes from… 

I’ve always had a fascination with other cultures’ gods and always took note of the ways that they related to each other, never broke away from where they were, and some of the ways that mimicked the story of Jesus.

Think about it, the Greek gods of Mt. Olympus stayed, for the most part, on Mt. Olympus, and when they weren’t there, they were messing with human life, direct interaction-style.  One place at a time.  Zeus, the top-dog, had a son.  His son was powerful, stong.  The strength of a god, all the flaws of a human.  A hero.

The Aesir stayed in Asgard.  If they wanted to war or go somewhere else, they had to go there, one place at a time.  Odin, had a son.  Also powerful, also strong.  A fearless warrior, completely flawed.  A hero.

The Bible calls God the Lord of Lords.  Why would it need to do that?  The Almighty God.  Why?  

If the other “gods” weren’t real, then why call God the One True God? It would seem redundant.  Right?

Well, I think that the gods and goddesses of other cultures are imposters!  I think that they are regional fallen angels set up to try to achieve the greatness of God by “ruling” their own people group.  Think about it.  Remember in Genesis 6, where the “sons of God” were hooking up with the “daughters of men” they were creating Nephilim.  The Bible says this about the Nephilim:  ”They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”

So, we have multiple stories of Zeus seducing the ladies all over Greece, and producing a son that becomes a hero of old.  Same story, no?

In another part of the Bible, Daniel 10, Daniel sees an angel of the Lord, and this angel says something I find very interesting:  ” …the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.”

The prince of the Persian kingdom?  I truly do not believe this to be a literal prince, and I don’t think it’s referring to the videogame series.  I believe that it’s referring to a fallen principality that has dominion over that area of Persia.  In Ephesians 6, Paul warns that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

I think these princes, powers, and rulers of darkness have been trying to mimic God for a long time, and it’s been working for a long time.  I believe that nowadays, they take different shapes in order to achieve the same affect, but I believe they’re still out there, deceiving people and keeping them from the truth of the Lord of Lords, the One True God who brought forth his son who committed no sins, was powerful but did not fight, and sacrificed himself for every single one of us.  It’s the only story of the son of a god out there where that happens. 

So, I guess the question is, what shape do they take nowadays?

[Warning, I feel strongly about this, so it might be a long post.]

It isn’t a question. It’s a fact. If you haven’t been watching Heroes, don’t start now.

Well, maybe you’d like it if you hadn’t been watching before and seen how good it could have been.

Let’s start with the dissection of why it was good in Season 1, so that we can all be on the same page. Season 1 started with a ton of interesting characters. Peter, Hiro, Claire, Mohinder, Nathan, Ando, and, my favorite, Sylar. (There’s more, but… well, we’ll get to everyone.)

The show interested people because it related to real life, and adjusting to having a power. The characters were three-dimensional, showing real emotions and motivations for their actions. Not only that, though. There was a common thread that tied every hero in the show together. This feeling that they needed to save a cheerleader, Claire, in order to save the world. This common thread continued throughout the show, and Sylar was the bad guy and everything was awesome. Then there came a twist where there was this company that was controlling and following people with powers, and you were concerned for your favorites. There’s a glimpse into the future and it’s amazing because Peter’s not whiny anymore, but cool and with tons of awesome powers.

And, to top it off, it had a great season finale where all of the Heroes came together, like destiny had sewn them together. Oh, and Peter blows up… with Nathan.

Then there was a huge break and when Season 2 started out, they began 6 months into the future. Which I believe is a problem with Heroes because of the obligatory “flashback” episode that has to happen.

6 Months into the future, Nathan looks perfectly healthy, is divorced, and Peter’s gone. Hiro’s in feudal Japan. Everyone else is separated again and not really interesting.

It’s at this point where we learn that someone is killing the founders of “The Company.” Which, most of us might have cared more about if it was still being run by someone cool, but it isn’t. It’s a guy with the power of Midas and turns stuff to gold… Whoopdy-doo. BUT, he’s got a hot daughter with a thing for electracuting people, and that’s awesome…

Oh, and Peter’s back, but he’s got amnesia and doesn’t remember that he’s the coolest character anymore, so he isn’t.

And the character you thought was pretty cool in Season 1 (Claire) who was so important to the plot, is just ANNOYING to the max for the entire season. With her WB Smallville romance and retard-reasoning… ugh.

Oh, and Ali Larter gets blown up… Which is so stupid.

THEN, the Writer’s Strike happened and the poop just misses the fan for the finale. They end the season on episode 13 with a very quick, “Oh crap, lets try to wrap up every loose end we have tonight” kind of episode. With a “cliff-hanger” ending that fans have to wait 1.5 years for.

Season 3 started in the future, like big time future, and then goes back in time to the finale of last season. Where Peter is cool, but he’s trying to “fix” everything. We never quite find out what he “fixed” but he shot his brother to keep him from telling the world about the people with powers. Uh, okay?

Then, we find out that “everything is ruined now.” Which is basically code for, “we don’t know where this season’s going.”

Then a bunch of people that are the “worst of the worst” from Section 5 get out. But, they all get caught again pretty quick. Then there’s a formula or something. Hiro’s ANNOYING and like a 13 year old.

There’s another company that’s run by Peter and Nathan’s dead father… guess what? He’s not so dead. But, he seems to round up all the bad guys and take care of most of them. Then the formula gives Ando powers, but Peter’s dad takes everyone’s powers away.

An eclipse (just like in Season 1) happens, but this time, it lasts for a whole day and takes away everyone’s powers. For ONE STUPID EPISODE. Then they’re all back to normal. This was the ultimate turning point for this show because it is the time when you realize, once-and-for-all, that Heroes is craptacular, and will never again be good. Yep, that’s right. It all built up to this episode in my opinion.

That episode proved that all the characters are just serving the purposes of filling in the plot that the writer’s have set up, and don’t have real emotions or motivations. Just plot, and a dumb one at that.

Nathan’s a bad guy now. No build up to the turn. No remorse, just a quick judgment, and he’s a bad guy and Peter hates him and wants to kill him. What?!

Oh, but Peter doesn’t have his powers, but then he gets them back… sort of. End of chapter.

We start in the future again. Midseason. Nathan has gotten the government to hunt/capture the people with powers (hiding his own powers) and giving some get out of jail free cards to Claire and a bit of one for Peter. Doesn’t make much sense, but okay.

This is when we find out that Peter no longer has the power to absorb every power he comes in contact with that was going to turn him into an awesome hero, but instead can only get one power at a time… boring.

So, that leaves Sylar as the coolest character on the show. And, the only one that seems to have some semblance of real emotions and motivations. He’s still got all of his powers, and therefore is the best “hero” of them all at this point.

For those that haven’t been watching, the main idea that you get from Season 1 is that Sylar and Peter are archenemies and there’s going to be a showdown of epic proportions. That’s the idea you get. It never happens. We almost see it happen in Season 1’s future, but at this rate, Peter’s not going to get anything done. Sylar’s got no competition at this point, and we still don’t know how he got out of a burning building with a knife in the brain…

To recap: Ugh. Frankly, Heroe’s has got until the end of this season to re-hook me. Then, I’d gladly take one less show to watch. Although, there is a rumor that LOST and Heroes simply can’t be good at the same time. Like they’re polarity causes one to be negative whilst the other is positive. Seems right, because Season 3 of LOST sucked, but that was Season 1 of Heroes… And now, LOST is kicking some serious butt. Answering questions, and stuff. Yep, and Heroes sucks. Interesting theory.

What do you think of Heroes? Do you still like it in the midst of it being so utterly buried in garbage? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure I guess. Let me know!