The Elephant in The Room
Aug. 17th, 2025 07:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erisquodsumWarning: spoilers for Heroes ahead. This show premiered nearly twenty years ago (I took seven points of psychic damage typing that), so maybe I'm being overly cautious about spoiling you, reader. Nevertheless, I'd rather be considerate. :)
Nathan Petrelli is dead. So that does kind of pose a problem for me writing him as a living man.
I'm generally taking him from an earlier canon point where he's still alive, but I'd also like to just... ignore his death, to be honest. It was handled very stupidly.
The idea to force Sylar to shape-shift and live as Nathan was fucking idiotic. I refuse to believe Angela Petrelli, a supposed mastermind of The Company and so much manipulation of the people around her, would be this stupid. Nathan is her son, sure, and she was grieving his death.
But Claire and her magical healing blood were right there. There was never anything said in canon about blood types and whether or not her blood would be compatible with everyone. Her blood was used to heal Noah Bennet after being shot in the eye back in season two, and no one had any concerns whatsoever about there being any adverse side-effects from that. And we see Noah alive and well after.
It would have been a very nice thematic bookend to have Claire's blood heal both of her fathers. With Meredith (Claire's bio-mom), it's easier to believe that she couldn't have been healed this way, because her death was so fiery and violent. Giving as few gory details as possible, it may not have been possible to administer a blood transfusion after Meredith was burned to death. Nathan, however, had his throat cut. The Company should had more of Claire's blood in storage after she let Mohinder Suresh draw several vials. There's no question that Claire would've given more to save Nathan's life.
So, that's what I'm going with. In any situation where Nathan is alive after the series finale, he was brought back with Claire's blood.
I'll have to think some more on specific "eras" and what he's doing in them. For now I'm mostly working on his voice with more of a vague idea of where he is in life. In general, he's freshly divorced from his wife, Heidi, who has primary custody of their two sons, Monty and Simon. He's also awkwardly trying to navigate a fatherly relationship with his illegitimate daughter, Claire. Heidi divorces him for fidelity as well as safety issues, and Nathan doesn't fight her on it so long as she keeps it all private. Full custody and child support, whatever she needs, in exchange for her silence.
Note: the fidelity issues are separate and nothing to do with Claire - she was born before Nathan and Heidi marry. Plus Nathan doesn't know about Claire's existence until she's like sixteen. He very much wants to keep the news of his illegitimate daughter out of the press, though.
It's very much some "divorced dad, midlife crisis" energy. He's working in the DA's office with aspirations to run for senator, being blackmailed and pressured into committing crimes by Linderman. It isn't strictly in canonical order, but I'm trying to make it make sense.
Any questions/ideas/concerns? My PMs are always open.
Nathan Petrelli is dead. So that does kind of pose a problem for me writing him as a living man.
I'm generally taking him from an earlier canon point where he's still alive, but I'd also like to just... ignore his death, to be honest. It was handled very stupidly.
The idea to force Sylar to shape-shift and live as Nathan was fucking idiotic. I refuse to believe Angela Petrelli, a supposed mastermind of The Company and so much manipulation of the people around her, would be this stupid. Nathan is her son, sure, and she was grieving his death.
But Claire and her magical healing blood were right there. There was never anything said in canon about blood types and whether or not her blood would be compatible with everyone. Her blood was used to heal Noah Bennet after being shot in the eye back in season two, and no one had any concerns whatsoever about there being any adverse side-effects from that. And we see Noah alive and well after.
It would have been a very nice thematic bookend to have Claire's blood heal both of her fathers. With Meredith (Claire's bio-mom), it's easier to believe that she couldn't have been healed this way, because her death was so fiery and violent. Giving as few gory details as possible, it may not have been possible to administer a blood transfusion after Meredith was burned to death. Nathan, however, had his throat cut. The Company should had more of Claire's blood in storage after she let Mohinder Suresh draw several vials. There's no question that Claire would've given more to save Nathan's life.
So, that's what I'm going with. In any situation where Nathan is alive after the series finale, he was brought back with Claire's blood.
I'll have to think some more on specific "eras" and what he's doing in them. For now I'm mostly working on his voice with more of a vague idea of where he is in life. In general, he's freshly divorced from his wife, Heidi, who has primary custody of their two sons, Monty and Simon. He's also awkwardly trying to navigate a fatherly relationship with his illegitimate daughter, Claire. Heidi divorces him for fidelity as well as safety issues, and Nathan doesn't fight her on it so long as she keeps it all private. Full custody and child support, whatever she needs, in exchange for her silence.
Note: the fidelity issues are separate and nothing to do with Claire - she was born before Nathan and Heidi marry. Plus Nathan doesn't know about Claire's existence until she's like sixteen. He very much wants to keep the news of his illegitimate daughter out of the press, though.
It's very much some "divorced dad, midlife crisis" energy. He's working in the DA's office with aspirations to run for senator, being blackmailed and pressured into committing crimes by Linderman. It isn't strictly in canonical order, but I'm trying to make it make sense.
Any questions/ideas/concerns? My PMs are always open.
