galathea | I am confused

Now, I started watching 'Heroes' because it became such a buzz and I wanted to see what it's all about and I find that this show irritates me. As you might know, it's a show about a bunch of people, discovering they have some sort of superpower and are probably destined to save the world together. Now, I am not saying the show is bad in any kind, in fact it has a neatly developed seasonal arc going for it, with slowly linking the characters together episode for episode. Now, what irritates me is that the show feels so 'unreal' to me, presumably because I can't relate to the characters at all.

I came to think about how interesting it is, that two shows (Supernatural and Heroes) can root in a supernatural background but the one feels completely real and true to me despite of vampires, shtrigas and shapeshifters while the other feels completely unreal to me although it's set in a matter of fact world only with some Superheroes in it. Shouldn't both shows arise the same initial disbelief in me?

Sam and Dean feel completely genuine to me, tangible, characters I can relate to and that I respond to on a very emotional level. Even with Sam having 'superpowers' of his own with the visions, he never looses his authenticity as a person to me, while the characters in 'Heroes' although being normal humans as well, come off as figures from a comic and have something oddly sketchy to me. That's probably intended but I can't quite put my finger on it, where the difference is between Sam and for example Isaac, the painter who paints visions about the future.

I wonder if this is just a personal issue, something that simply derives out of the fact that I am not able to relate to the characters in the way I do with Sam and Dean or if it is something in the writing/story itself. *is confused*

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I've never seen Heroes - it isn't on over here yet, and I'm not so big with the dl-ing. But I always find that the difference between watching a show on a superficial level and getting totally sucked in and absorbed by it is being able to forge some kind of connection with the characters on an emotional level. If the characters don't convince me, or I don't find some reason to become attached to them, then the show itself can be brilliant but I'm not going to get much from it.

And I've always found it strange that some shows, some characters do it for me, and others don't, sometimes with no really apparent reason why. It's something almost indefinable at times.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I know the reason why I am completely obsessed with SN are the characters and my emotional response to them, but that wasn't exactley what I meant. Let's put it this way: Sam always stays a 'real' person to me, no matter if he suddenly moves things with his mind or not, it doesn't affect his status as a person. While with the characters in Heroes I feel that their powers affect my ability to see them as a 'real' person. I don't know any better way to put it. And that's what irritates me so much, because I don't know exactley why it happens with those characters but not with Sam. Maybe it is the simple fact that Sam had time to establish himself as a person [I]before[/I] he had the whole vision/telekinesis thing going on?

Again, haven't seen Heroes so can't comment on the characters in that. With SN, the characters do feel very much grounded in reality, and it's hard to define just why. I was watching a film with my brother the other week, and it was an excellent film - Aeon Flux with Charlize Theron - very slick and fast-paced and well acted...but I never felt we were connecting to the characters. They felt like actors acting out parts, rather than real people, and the universe in which they lived never really felt like a real place. I think that's the difference with shows like SN - it's gritty, and grounded in the real world, and the characters react like real people, and have a myriad of tiny mannerisms and quirks, every one of which adds to the believability of them.

How much of Heroes have you seen? Sometimes it takes the longest time for characters in a show to really get established as people rather than as characters playing a part. Apparently the Beeb have bought the rights, so it might be shown here next year.

I have only seen the first 5 episodes of Heroes and it's a huge ensemble cast, which makes fleshing out the characters of course a bit difficult. Lyn pointed something out to me though, that makes a lot of sense: A lot of the abilities of the Heroes characters are scifi based rather than fantasy based. For example, flying like Superman or bending the time-space continuum. While I don't believe in telekinesis either, it doesn't necessarily defy the laws of nature and therefore might be easier to accept and doesn't interfere with the reality of the character in general.

It seems to me that while the Heroes characters struggles are rooted in something 'unreal' (their nature as Superheroes) the struggles of the Winchester brothers are rooted in something 'real' (the nature of their past), even the MotW plotlines usually ground in human tragedies, so overall the show is based on a different principle than Heroes.

*remembers to come back*

*peers around nervously as the lights flicker!*

I think that having the characters grounded in reality and believability, no matter how bizarre their circumstances, is crucial. For me, anyway. I think that's the biggest problem I've had trying to follow season four Smallville. It isn't the lame plots and stupid storylines - it's that I just can't believe in any of the characters. They feel like characters putting on a show rather than real people whose lives we are watching. There's a difference. I mean, they are all supposed to be friends, but I can't get any sense of actual friendship from them. We never see them just hanging out being friends. It's nothing but double-think and second-guessing, guarded comments designed to shield.

Where Sam and Dean have got me in SN is that I believe in them as people and as both brothers and friends. We not only know that they spend about 95% if not more of their time together, but we see them just hanging out together when not actively working a case. There's an air of casualness about them, unstudied, tiny quirks and mannerisms. They feel like real people who just happen to work in the field of the supernatural, rather than being all about the supernatural. It's all good. :-)

I enjoy your art very much. I love what you can do.. wish I could do the same.. well I just wanted to congradulate you .. and please.. please.. keep them coming!.. I just wish you would take requests for wallpaper!..*s*...

Thank you! :) I try to keep my art up, but it always depends on inspiration and time. I am not averse to taking requests, it's just that I can't promise that I fulfill a request. If someone suggests a theme that inspires me I'll happily create it, but I can't force it. :)

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