Can Hiro Change History? What IS History?

Spoiler Space for Heroes 11/5/07.... s p o i l e r s p a c e

It seems to me that Hiro can change history. (Peter, too, but he's still figuring out that power.) After all, the exploded-NY timeline was history to the people living in it, including future Hiro. Hiro visited it, saw it, and then went back and changed it.

And he seems quite worried that he's been changing the Japanese history he knows by visiting Japan in the past. I think we're meant to take that seriously, too.

So why is he limiting himself? When Ando tells Hiro that his father has been murdered, I would think that his first impulse would be to go a few months into the past and stop it. Maybe, for some obscure reason, he wouldn't be able to manage it (even though he managed to stop exploded-NY). But doesn't it seem likely that he would try? And then try again?

As for his relationship with the swordsmith's daughter, there he is REALLY giving up easy. Sure, there's a story that the great hero Takezo Kensei of ancient Japan 'ripped out his own heart to save...' (well, to save something, I'm not sure). And Hiro has chosen to interpret that as meaning he must leave the 'princess' he loves. But that's just silly. Even if it's a story that Hiro heard as a kid, it's still just a story - a nice legend, but obviously not literal. Why think it ever happened at all? It's a legend.

Hiro and the princess could spend six months spreading the story of the great Takezo Kensei, including that nice part about him 'ripping out his heart.' Then he can take her back to the present with him. For all Hiro knows, all this - him filling in for Takezo Kensei, he and his girlfriend spreading stories about Takezo Kensei, and then the two of them coming back to 2007 - is EXACTLY the way history happened the first time around (and every time around).

I realize, of course, that none of this will happen, because it's not the direction they want to take the show in. But that being the case, they should build in some understandable reasons why Hiro doesn't use his powers in this way. Or at least try to.

If on the other hand he's wrong, he could come back to find out nothing left of the world. Not to mention that the swordsmith's daughter would find it exceedingly difficult to live centuries in the future.

Considering he's basically guessing what the metaphorical legend means, he could be wrong either way.

As for the swordsmith's daughter finding it 'exceedingly difficult' to live in our present day - wow, you're not much of a romantic are you? What a reason to bust up two people who love each other!

The show is about people who adjust to the fact that they can stop time, walk through walls, and fly. I think Hiro's girlfriend, who is still fairly young, would learn, adjust, and enjoy. There are a lot of science fiction stories in which people from the current day travel into the far future and stay there - do you automatically dislike such

This is the old conundrum of time travel discussions...how could one change the time line in a way that would disrupt so much that one's own existence would never have come to be? Then the change of time line would never have happened since that person never happened. This is why I prefer the idea of various (possibly infinite) parallel time lines. If we believe the universe (universes?) is infinite, then aren't all possibilities as well?

True enough...but *something* happened...history can never tell us all of the finer details...that could change a great deal with a minimal effort. Perhaps this story (Heroes itself) is illustrating the futility of trying to change things this way. There will always be those unintended consequences...sort of like US foreign policy.

Unless of course it turns out she is Hiro's ancestor.

Really? You KNOW the direction THEY want to take the show in? Are you here from the future? *Future* Anlatt?

It seems Hiro can control travelling through space, but when has he ever shown the ability to control travelling in time?

* When he went into the future, it was by accident and didn't know where he was at first...

* Even this whole adventure in the past, he didn't have control over where he ended up.

* And in returning, he was surprised when Ando told him he arrived months later.

The farther the time jump the less control he has. He does time stops and jumps ahead a few seconds quite easily.

Not really. He knows that before he came to the past, he had not changed the past. Therefore he knows the swordsmith's daughter is a part of history and therefore removing her would be changing it, thereby endangering everything.

Technically, no. He didn't take the actions that changed the future. He just gave people in the present the knowledge they needed to prevent that future from coming to pass.

Hiro doesn't use his powers this way because he's Hiro. He doesn't believe it would be right for him to do what you're talking about.

Giving them that information was an action that changed the future.

Not necessarily. They had to act on the information to change the future. They could have chosen not to.