竹板凳的漁瘟

Nathan, ever the politician.

There are a lot of talks about Nathan's rapid shifting of sides in Heroes season 3.  Frankly there are a lot of talks about Sylar's rapid shifting of sides in season 3.  Some fans thinks this is due to poor writing, and they are out of character. 

I don't share that view and I think this could possibly be the deepest and most thoughtful season of Heroes yet.  I think the writer is trying to show us it's not your views that makes you a villain, because you can be a villain no matter what your view is.

So this season, we've been a couple of people coming up with ideas to how the society should deal with people with abilities.  And like any political issues, people are divided on a scale from one end of the extreme to another, with others stuck somewhere along the middle.

Adam just want to remove everyone's ability

extreme
↑
Remove All Powers (Adam)
Locking up all people with abilities (Nathan after death of Arthur)
Lock up those too powerful or evil (The company and HRG)
I love my power and no one else should have any (Sylar)
Just Remove my power, I don't care about the others (Maya)
Do nothing and hide from the world (Nathan in season 1)
I love my power and I don't care about the others (Daphne)
Those blessed with abilities should stop others to use their abilities to do evil (Peter, Claire)
Give the right people power (Nathan after trip to Haiti)
Give everyone Power (Pa Petrelli)
↓
extreme

There are people who think in the big picture and want a solution to fix everything for everyone, and those tend to have the views to the extreme ends of the scale.

Sylar: I hate heroes…

There are people who just think about themselves, and have views towards the middle of the scale.

But it really doesn't matter where you stand, you are be at anyone point of the spectrum and still be a villain.  Nathan is a great example.  He's been going over all kinds of views since the last season.  At one point he was about to let the world know that there are people with abilities, and at the end of season 3.5 he wanted to lock them up from the rest of the world.

I think it is actually great writing, if you are willing to see what the writers are trying to do. In real life people change their minds.   People say they believe in one thing and do the complete opposite.   That doesn't make them the villain.  You can believe in god and do everything you were told to serve god and you can still be a villain.

Even Peter, who just want to use his powers to stop those doing evil, or HRG who believe there are people that needs to be put away, can become villains.   That's the brilliance of this season because that's exactly how the world is today.

People can be the left or the right, pro-choice or pro-life, democrats or republicans, for TI or for Chinese oppression, support environment protection or demand immediate drilling, for gay right or homophobic, in the end, it's not the intensions, the beliefs that makes one evil.  It's what you do or don't do with them.

Like the crew of the Galactica Wathercooler always say, it's not what you believe in, it's your action that makes who you are.