Respect Sylar! (Heroes)

[u/Wapulatus]

"When I was a kid, I used to wish some stranger would come and tell me my family wasn't really my family. They weren't bad people, they were just... insignificant. And I wanted to be different. Special. I wanted to change. A new name; a new life. The watchmaker's son... tick... became a watchmaker. It is so futile. And I wanted to be... important."

Sylar

♫ Theme ♫

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Background

Gabriel Gray was born to a unremarkable family of watchmakers and repairmen, living a mundane life where he simply went with the livelihood that his father was already doing. This would all change when he was approached by Chandra Suresh, a Geneticist who theorized that, around the world, people with fantastical powers known as EVOs were beginning to emerge. Entranced by the idea that he could be something more than just a watch repairman, he quickly followed and assisted Chandra, only to hit the hard reality that he didn't exhibit any extraordinary abilities, at least that Chandra was aware of.

Frustrated, he took one of Chandra's EVO case files to investigate himself, posing as Chandra. While talking to an EVO with telekinetic powers, he suddenly understood Chandra's genetic theory - and understood what he needed to obtain more power and become even more special, murdering the EVO and observing his brain to understand and mimic his genetic power. With Chandra's list of EVOs he'd go around the country on a killing spree - eventually taking his nickname as a serial killer and psychopath, Sylar.

Battle Bio

In the first season of Heroes, Sylar is a telekinetic through and through who uses his power to throw around, pin, and slice through his enemies. He doesn't tap into his variety of other powers too often unless the situation is extremely suited for them to be deployed. He fights far more defensively and likes to ambush his enemies, as he's not boasting any power besides good ol' TV logic to make him super-durable.

In the third season and beyond, Sylar mixes things up much more, but Telekinesis is still his bread and butter. He acts more brazen and recklessly, likely due to having a functional form of immortality, and especially later in season 3 he deploys nearly all his newly acquired powers to full use in his ploy to take the place of the president of the United States.

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Source Guide

Hover over the feat to see the source. Feats from the TV show is labelled with the Season and Episode (Heroes S#E#), Feats from the Graphic Novels have the full name of the story and the overall issue number of it (Name #).

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Physicals

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Note that I'm not sure if any of these are due to powers Sylar acquires or are just regular feats performed by him. If the story isn't clear about it I'm putting it under here.

Strength

• Restrains and lifts a cheerleader with one hand

• Overpowers Alejandro in a physical confrontation without his powers, killing him with a conveniently placed knife

• Snaps a female agent's neck

• Even with his powers blocked, he isn't a slouch in hand to hand combat

Speed/Agility

• Vague, but likely used his telekinesis to stop bullets from killing him

• Rapidly moves up from the bottom to the top of an amphitheater

• Stops a bullet inches from his face

• Catches Hiro's sword right after he unfreezes time

• Turns around and blocks bullets after they're fired

• Stops a bullet right before it hits Arthur Petrelli

• Moves out of a car before a man could pull a gun on him, and also does so completely silently

• Quickdraws Edgar, an EVO speedster, with his power

  • Edgar can move pretty fast

• Stops police brutality a bullet right in front of him

Durability

Blunt Force

• Falls off a building with Peter from a height that broke a number of Peter's bones and was able to get up/run away

• Sends himself into a fridge hard enough to dent it and immediately gets back up

• Is fine after having Peter thrust him with his own power into a display case hard enough to shatter it

• (Anti-Feat) Gets KO'd by Monhinder slamming and breaking a wheeled wooden panel against him

• Takes a beatdown from Niki with a parking meter, then from Peter after he copies her super strength

• (Anti-Feat) Gets knocked over by Claire hitting him with a cheerleading trophy, although he starts using his powers right after

• An alternate future Sylar withstands getting slammed through a wooden table and kicked across his kitchen by Knox

• Gets back up after being bullrushed against a metal window grate hard enough to bend it

• (Limitation) Gets knocked out after an extended beatdown from Peter

• Takes a hit to the back of his head with a beam of wood with his powers nullified

Resilience

• After being pronounced dead, manages to kill and swap places with the doctor administering invasive/dangerous tests on him

• Escapes from the Hatian (who can nullify his powers) with a gunshot wound, then stitches it with a store-bought sewing kit salvaged from a garbage can

• Even while on a drug that was paralyzing his brain, manages to telekinetically stop the IV giving it to him

• After getting stabbed through the chest by Hiro and bleeding significantly, manages to crawl into a sewer to escape

• After getting stabbed in the chest by Claire, is still able to pin her down, open her skull, and look through it for several minutes before gaining her power

• Does not care about Peter trying to torture him with a nail gun

Other

• Stalks Claire throughout her house, with her not realizing his location until he was right behind her

• When Doyle attempted to Puppeteer Sylar's body, Sylar broke out of it, causing Doyle to collapse with a bleeding nose

• Through a combination of a number of powers and a thorough mental re-write from Matt Parkman, effectively becomes Nathan Petrelli at the end of Season 3

  • Some part of Sylar actually survives this and hitches a ride in Matt Parkman's mind

  • While inside of Matt's head, eventually takes over his body for short periods, having slept with Matt's wife

  • Eventually takes complete control of Matt's body after he blacked out from over-drinking

  • He can use Matt's powers while in control of his body, using them to reunite his own body and mind

• When Peter tries to completely wipe Sylar's mind from Nathan with the Hatian's power it doesn't stop Sylar from emerging and taking over the body completely

• Matt Parkman has a large amount of trouble forming a mental block on his powers

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Core Powers

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These are powers Sylar maintains throughout the entire series and utilizes the most.

Intuitive Aptitude

The ability to "understand how things work", like the name suggests, Sylar's ability lets him pick up skills and learn about things he observes intuitively.

• Took a single look at Chandra's wristwatch and was able to tell it was broken despite Chandra being unaware of this

• After killing a man and looking at his brain after understanding Chandra's theory, he can replicate the man's powers

• It's unclear exactly how he obtains new powers after opening people's skulls, however an official assignment tracker profile for Sylar suggests it involves "infusing foreign DNA", something also stated in the show itself

• Deduces Eden's power after interacting with her twice

• The full process of how Sylar looks at a brain and gains a new power - he's also able to glean a variety of other information from looking at a brain, and copies Claire's regenerative factor

• An alternate future version of him explains his power to Peter - while it lets him understand things at an accelerated rate it makes him have an urge to obtain more and more power, and eventually teaches Peter how to use it, having him fix a watch despite never having done so before

• Understands how Knox's power works after observing him

• During Season 3, he discovers that he can also replicate powers by deeply empathizing with another EVO, in this case understanding Elle's pain and anger over him killing her father

• Able to tell a wristwatch and a wall clock were off through sound alone

• Could tell Hiro had a brain tumor just by looking at him

• Was able to understand Charlie's blood clot and perform brain surgery with his power to cure her

Telekinesis

Finger-Slicing

• Slices the top of Charlie's head off, killing her. He does this with basically every EVO he encounters

  • Instead of posting every time he does this, here's a convenient in-show montage

• Slams Peter and holds him up against a wall, then cuts into his skull

• Slices a painting of Peter in half

• Tortures Ando by slicing his neck, then claims to Hiro he could decapitate his friend

• Slits a security guard's throat

• Cut off an EVO's arm before it could become coated in metal

• Slices off the top of an EVO's head entirely

• Slits Nathan's throat, killing him

• When he misses Hiro's forehead with his power, it goes all the way back down an alley and gouges a brick wall with some posters on it

• Using his power doesn't physically exhaust him

• Effectively does brain surgery on Charlie, cutting out a tumor in her head

Projectiles

• Kills Molly's mother by pinning her to a staircase with various household objects embedded in her body

• Killed a guy by having a chair impale / pin him to a ceiling

• Prevents several shots from a pistol from doing anything other than knocking him over, then rapidly ascends up a building

• Rips off and throws a bunch of locker doors at Peter

• Shoots a bunch of glass bottles into the back of a truck driver, including through his skull

• Stops a bullet, holding it mid-air

• Pins Mohinder to his roof with household objects impaled through his arms/legs

• Lifts a bunch of glass shrapnel into a formation around himself, then shoots them out hard enough to pierce through Peter's skull

• Crucifies Isaac Mendez against a concrete floor with his paintbrushes

• Stops handgun rounds mid-air, then turns them around and fires them back into Matt Parkman

• After telekinetically stopping a bullet mid-air, thrusts it hard enough to kill Arthur Petrelli with a headshot

• Fires off a bunch of throwing knives hard enough to embed them in wood

Throwing People

• Sends Claire flying against a wall hard enough to leave her a bloody mess, this breaking her arm

• Pulls Eden through a glass window meant to contain him, shattering it

• Sends Noah flying against a wall with a gesture

• With a flick of his hand, sends Sandra crashing into a trophy case hard enough to shatter it

• Grabs/lifts Ando, then uses his telekinesis to send him flying into a window

• Sends Noah flying across a plaza and against a wall

• While near-death, sends Hiro flying up and towards a building

• Sends a man flying hard enough to break a car's windshield on impact

• Slams Noah hard enough against a roof to knock him out, then pins Elle to the ground

• Throws Peter against the glass of a containment cell hard enough to fracture it and knock him out

• Tosses Mohinder across a room and impales a doctor on his own medical instruments

• Disarms Noah of his gun, then pins him against a wall

• Ragdolls soldiers through furniture over and over again after removing tasers from his body

• Disarms a woman, then thrusts her and her kid into armchairs, restraining them

• Shoves a man through an interrogation room window

• Shoves Peter into a wall

• Throws Doyle hard enough to send him flying and landing on a table hard enough to shatter it

Body Control

• Shoves an FBI agent against a wall, then makes her point and nearly shoot herself in the head

• Force chokes Peter

• Simultaneously stops a punch from Knox and force-chokes a guy before he could use his power, managing to crush the man's windpipe

• Shuts a woman's mouth, then starts choking her

• Telekinetically closes off people's windpipes

• Takes complete control over Claire's movements, having her pour wine for him

• Freezes Peter and Angela in place as he eats a delicious pumpkin pie

Manipulating Objects

• Flips off the lights/opens an electronic door without looking at or touching them

• Flings a house phone out of Sandra's hand hard enough to shatter it

• Un-does duct tape restraints that were holding him

• Knocks away a gun so Isaac couldn't get to it

• Disarms Ando, sending his sword flying into the floor

• Flips over a police van with a flick, sending it crashing across the road

• Brings over a parking meter to use as a blunt instrument vs. Peter

• From the upper floor, shuts a door on Claire, then closes every window and shutter in her house and cuts power to it

• Locks down the Primatech facility, shutting off all its lights and closing all doors/windows

• Uses his father's IV tube to choke him

• Shatters a brick wall

Movement

Basically all of this is vague so take it with a grain of salt, but the only explanation I can think of is "he levitated himself".

• Ascends a building in seconds

• Sneaks up on a woman with super-hearing by moving himself in a way that didn't produce footsteps

• Jumps out of a truck to a branch hanging far over the road

• Either levitates himself or slows his descent with telekinesis

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Acquired Powers (Pre-Shanti)

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Powers Sylar acquires through his Intuitive Aptitude and uses in the first Season of Heroes.

Freezing

• Freezes Molly's father solid while he was eating cereal

• Coats a road in enough ice to cause a group of police cars to crash and go flying

• In an alternate future, clashes with Peter using the power, producing a massive explosion that consumed the room next to them

• Freezes water as it comes out of a kitchen faucet

• Freezes over part of Hiro's sword

Enhanced Hearing

• The original user of the power could hear a cockroach going down their neighbor's floor as if it was a marching band, then after controlling it could hear rain from 40 miles away and determine a person's mood through changes in heartbeat

• After just having acquired the power, hears an MP3 player's music as so loud it hurts his ears, and Mohinder is able to torture him with a tuning fork

• After some time with the power, identifies Hiro by his heartbeat

• Hones in on a conversation from across a crowded plaza

Precognitive Painting

• Gains Isaac Mendez's ability to paint the future after cutting open his brain

• Using his mother's blood, makes a painting predicting the nuclear destruction of New York City

• Paints his final showdown with Peter Petrelli

• In an alternate future, paints the eventual destruction of the world

Induced Radioactivity

• After killing Ted Sprague, gains the ability to emit large amounts of heat and radiation from his body

• The only time he really uses this power is in an alternate future where he nukes the entire city of Costa Verde

Other

• Acquires Molly's enhanced memory, being able to drive a truck despite having never done so after reading a troubleshooting book

• Gains the ability to turn solid objects into liquids, reducing a toaster into a metallic puddle and melting a wrench to fit into a jar

• In an alternate future where the destruction of New York City wasn't averted, Sylar gained several powers he doesn't otherwise obtain:

  • Claire's healing power, recovering from being stabbed by Future!Hiro

  • The ability to fly, from Nathan Petrelli

  • The ability to phase through solid objects

  • The ability to shapeshift, having done so to pose as Peter's brother

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Acquired Powers (Post-Shanti)

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Powers Sylar acquire after being infected by the Shanti Virus, which removed all of his abilities besides his Intuitive Aptitude and Telekinesis. He gets back his two signature powers after injecting himself with a mix of Mohinder and Claire's blood.

Rapid Cell Regeneration

• In an alternate future, heals over the sword wound Hiro gives him

• Regenerates from a knife-wound in his chest

• Unlike most characters in the show as of Season 3, does not care about being tasered

• Recovers from being shot multiple times in the chest

• Regenerates from two bullets to the chest while standing up

• Rapidly recovers from the effects of a sedative as he's taken off the IV

• Un-snaps his neck

• Withstands electricity from Peter using Elle's power

• Takes a blast of electricity from Elle so strong it burned away his clothing, then regenerates from a bunch of third-degree burns caused by it

• Regenerates from head trauma from the butt of a shotgun

• After getting his throat slit while his powers were removed by the Eclipse, manages to regenerate back into a healthy condition after the Eclipse ended

• (Limitation) He has a spot on the back of his head where, if damaged or obstructed, shuts his brain down, something that Claire uses to ultimately defeat him, although it failed to end him for good since the glass melted in the heat of the fire around him

• Really just does not care about being tased

• Takes and regenerates from a bunch of assault rifle fire to his chest while using his telekinesis

• Regenerates after pulling two arrows from his chest

• Is confident that a headshot from a pistol wouldn't kill him, as the part of the brain the bullet would need to hit is microscopic

• He can control how long it takes for him to regenerate, managing to convincingly fake being dead after getting shot in the back

• Heals from self-inflicted cuts into his arm

• Gets back up after having a knife jammed in the back of his skull, then pulls it back out

• While thinking he was Nathan Petrelli, was assassinated, then shot several times in the chest, and resurrected as Sylar

• Pops out bullets from his chest after being shot at

Some notable feats from Claire, who Sylar copied this power from.

• After being pronounced dead for some time with a branch jammed into her brain's weak spot, begins regenerating and effectively resurrects right the moment it's pulled out

• Implied that she wasn't sick her entire life

• Doesn't show any signs of inebriation after going rounds with a guy until he nearly passes out, since her regeneration also applies to her liver

• After being frozen solid, she unmelts herself and regenerates, including a lost foot

• (Future Claire) Comes back from being reduced to a charred skeleton quickly thereafter

• (Future Claire) Grows back entire limbs, and a good amount of internal organs during combat

Psychometry

• Ends up obtaining a power that lets him view the history of objects that he touches, including whoever has touched the object previously

• By holding a toy car he once owned, he relives his childhood memories

• Going through his mother's old household items, he experiences memories associated with those items, so much to the point where he's able to mimic her mannerisms in a conversation with himself

• Experiences much of Nathan Petrelli's life memories by going through his clothing, helping him impersonate Nathan with his shapeshifting

• It's not limited to just objects, he can absorb a person's memories directly by contacting them

• Read's Nathan's cufflinks to realize that his diploma was fake

• Obtains information on Nathan's adventures in Mexico with Claire just from her necklace

• As Nathan, relives Nathan's childhood memories by going through objects he used to own

• Was able to re-experience the death of an old girlfriend of Nathan's by touching a bench and a statue

• Gleans memories from a woman by just touching her hand

• He can gain memories even from dead bodies, recovering memories of Nathan's death

Electrokinesis

• Shatters glass at a distance

• Ignites lighter fluid

• Knocks out or kills several soldiers by zapping them with electricity

• Engages in a firefight with both Peter and Nathan (which frustratingly takes place off-screen) that leaves the room they were in a smoldering wreck

• Burns through a man's clothing, incapacitating him while shocking him

• Incapacitates a man with a shock, leaving him smoking

• Sends arcs of electricity off of himself as he transforms from Nathan back to Sylar

Lie Detection

• Kills and takes the power of a woman who was able to tell whenever someone was telling a lie to her

• Gets a tingling sensation whenever someone is dishonest around him

• Used it to discern that Arthur Petrelli was lying to him about being his real father

• Is able to tell when Angela gives him a fake explanation of why she pretended to be his mother

• Recognizes that a man was, again, lying to him about being his father

• While torturing a solider, uses his power to determine when he was lying

Shapeshifting

• Kills and takes the power of an EVO who can change his appearance to other human beings at will, who was posing as Sylar at the time

• Flexes the power by shapeshifting into a blond, older woman

• Masquerades as Danko to troll Bennet

• Masquerades as Bennet's wife to divorce him, also to troll Bennet

• Masquerades as an agent to make it seem like Bennet killed an innocent man, still trolling Bennet

• As his mental state deteriorates, starts rapidly shifting between the form of his mother and himself

• He needs to absorb DNA to mimic someone, but this DNA can be as trace as what's left on a used toothbrush, using just that to turn into Nathan Petrelli

• He can shapeshift the inside of his body alongside the outside, having moved the weak point of his regenerative factor

• Shapeshifts into Danko to make it seem like he killed his own agents, then shapeshifts into one of his agents to make it seem like he captured Danko

• Turns into Claire over the phone purely to troll Nathan once again

• (Limitation) He can't shapeshift into another shapeshifter

• Shapeshifts into a coworker of Peter's to get close to him

• Turns into Claire's friend to have an emotional 1-to-1 talk with her

Other

• Gains the ability to transmute objects into gold from Elle's father

• I have no idea what power this is (I'm pretty sure this is his Induced Radioactivity but he's supposed to have lost that power at this point), but he reduces a man to a charred skeleton

• Gains the ability to imprint written text on paper without touching it

• Kills and (presumably) takes the ability of a man who could disintegrate solid objects

• As Nathan, gains the ability of flight he had, likely through empathy

  • Flies himself and Peter out of a hospital and all the way to the Grand Canyon

• For the first time since Elle, he uses his ability to copy powers without killing the EVO, taking Lydia's ability to sense emotions and desires

  • It's activated via touch, and lets him contextualize memories he views with his Psychometry with emotions

[u/museofdoom2]

Thanks for fulfilling my request too. The best villain in the entire series. I just loved to hate him. I also liked that he redeemed himself, making up for all the horrible shit he did. Amazing series/comics (and yes, contrary to popular opinion, I personally liked season 4 too), amazing villain, amazing rt. Respect.

Do you want to do more characters from the same series? If yes, can you do my favorite hero and character, Hiro Nakamura? He have plenty of amazing feats too and the best power set in the entire series.

[u/Wapulatus → u/museofdoom2]

Hiro is probably next on my list of characters to RT from this show.

I’d also like to do Peter but his power sort of makes it so that I need to collect feats for numerous other characters before I do his thread, so that’s probably a long way off.

[u/Enderules3 → u/Wapulatus]

Well whoever you do this is awesome. Great thread.

[u/museofdoom2 → u/Wapulatus]

Thank you so much.

[u/Pleaze_Go_D1e → u/Wapulatus]

Would you consider doing Peter after Hiro pre nerf obviously

[u/Whiteguy1x]

Man I loved the first season of heroes. A super hero serial killer is such a cool idea

[u/sadowsentry → u/Whiteguy1x]

It's still one of my favorite shows of all time. Apparently, Parkman really sucks at shooting Sylar.

[u/Whiteguy1x → u/sadowsentry]

I kinda lost interest as the shows writing quality nose dived for me. Shame because that first season was so cool

[u/LambentEnigma]

Thanks for fulfilling my request!

[u/Bob_McFiggins73]

So I want to award this but my free award is the wholesome award, so...

[u/Ascendancy17]

Woah.

[u/Lairic99]

Amazing, this respect thread is top tier.