Sci-Fi Shenanigans

Old school Mohinder ramble!

I had to dig deep in the archives for this one. I promise, Ribit, that my next entry will be my thoughts on a possible hint for the next Trek movies. If you'd like a hint, I suggest you grab a mirror.

The amount of utterly useless commentary I have on the myriad aspects of Heroes is mind numbing. Really, it is. However, I'll split it up over several entries to keep from boring you all. Beware of character/actor cross analysis, random bitching about the creative staff and/or fandom and more snark than a Lewis Black convention. Okay, that last one didn't make sense, but I like it. So it stands.

That really depends on who you ask and when. Ask most people in season one, and you'd get an overwhelming "GAY!" in response. I would have been in that crowd. I watched the times with Eden, and there just wasn't spark there to me. I felt that Mohinder was more interested in her as an ally and possible source of information in matters regarding his father more than anything. Likewise, she could have persuaded Mohinder to proposition her, but she never did that. There are instances when she could have persuaded him to do other things, but that's really up for interpretation. I never saw the romantic potential for those two, and I was fine with it.

To be honest, I think fandom had a say in my reasoning behind Mohinder being a flamer. How much is hard to say, but the fanfic I read early on in my Heroes fangirling days intrigued me. Likewise, I felt the scene between him and Mira was contrived. (On an unrelated note, they should have featured Mira more; she would have offered great contrast since she expressed doubt in Chandra Suresh's work, which ultimately drove the story. Anyway....) Those two elements lead me down the Road to Mohinder Gayness. Though I initially shipped him with Peter (for reasons that oddly elude me right), I once shipped him with Sylar (briefly) and a little with Matt (but not much).Still, I could see the potential of pairing him with other [male] characters. The only exception to this that I've found is Hiro. Don't get me started on that one, though. For whatever reason, Hiro has eaten my brain as of late, and that meta could last longer than the friggin strike. All the same, Mohinder could be paired with lots of males. However, I am very picky about who I put with Mohinder, and here's why.

Having studied screenwriting and dabbled a little bit in the realm of acting, I know which pairings could be realistic and what pairings are really just sexual tension. There is a difference. I lean toward shipping Peter and Mohinder because the show gives telltale signs of it being more plausible than some of the other pairings I've seen. Granted, some things like the poster and the graphic novel picture could have been the artists having a joke at our collective expense. On the other hand, these things are a form of foreshadowing used in scripts and scripted products. If you've ever seen Citizen Kane, you'd know how a newspaper headline foreshadows the climax of the movie. "Collision" had a similar effect. Another thing that sold me was the way Sendhil played Mohinder in all the scenes he and Peter had together. Without the scripts in front of me, I'm inclined to say that more of the multilayered emotions, postures and vocal exercises that make Mohinder work so well with Peter is developed by Sendhil and NOT the creative staff.

Looking at scriptwriting and acting, let's look at the flip side of this: Mylar. Now in episode 14 ("Distractions", I think), we do see Mohinder begin to change his mind about those with abilities when he sees Zane-Sylar in action. You have to admit this is the first time we see Mohinder smile. And yes, it is a bit weird to take someone you barely know on a road trip. However, so many things work against this. They get separate hotel rooms when they're in Montana. Then, Mohinder is fucking PISSED when he figures out who Zane really is. Given that Mohinder knew to look up Zane Taylor so soon after their arrival in New York makes me think Mohinder knew all along and had some idea as to how he was going to avenge his father's death. I mean, he just so happened to have power negating drugs around. That in itself makes me think the whole Mylar ship spawned from the angry sexual tension and the utter prettiness of the actors (and I don't crush on Sendhil because he strikes me as a long lost older sibling for me. Just saying.). Likewise, when you look at the scenes they have in season two, Mohinder clearly still loathes (and to some extent) fears him. Another factor in this equation is Sylar. Some may try to justify Mohinder as Sylar's weak spot, but if anything, Mohinder's is a stronger character who just happens to throw down a gauntlet no matter how misdirected. Sylar is sociopathic and manipulative, and while he isn't afraid of using sex to get what he wants, he doesn't do that with Mohinder. Now fanfic attempts to fill in the blanks with offscreen sex. Judging by their body postures in episode 18, I'd say they were friends at most. I could say that Zachary may have played Sylar as a bit flirtatious perhaps, but Sendhil did play Mohinder in a more standoffish manner than his MO, thus negating Zach's intentions. Chalk it up to a failed conquest that might justify one-sided Mohinder/Sylar. Anything else, and I'm just not on board.

Now what about the potential hetero in Mohinder? I'm still not entirely sold on it, but if they had decided to allude to something between Mohinder and Simone...I might have bought that. They actually had some things in common, and outside of her relationship with Isaac, Simone was a strong character. I didn't like her interactions with Peter (contrived tripe if I've ever seen it), but I warmed to her when I saw her interact with the others (Isaac, Hiro, Nathan). In particular, I found her interaction with Nathan very fascinating. This to me showed that, at least on an emotional level, she and Mohinder had something in common. They both started off doubtful about these powers actually existing. Remember: Mohinder was following in his father's footsteps only to get his father's approval. I don't think he totally believed his father's theories in the beginning. Anyway, as season one progresses, Mohinder and Simone transform in very similar ways as they start to see these powers in action and how they affect people. From there, the potential for a relationship would have been slow, subtle and rooted in intellect. On a mental and emotional level, the two characters were pretty close to equal, if not already there. I think they would have butted heads at some point, but that tennds to happen even when people of equal emotional status engage in conversation. But that could have been convincingly written, and they deleted the one scene when they do meet. In that scene, they play well off of each other, and you can see that they see eye to eye (literally and otherwise). Simone has a weakness for weak men, but compared to Isaac and Peter (a la season 1), Mohinder is relatively stronger. He's foolhardy, but he's not self destructive and at least attempts to think things through before going off on some harebrained adventure. I think Simone would have appreciated those qualities in him. True, Mohinder had some dependency issues, but they weren't about to cost him his life like jumping off a building or shooting dope. It could have worked if the writers were to have gone down that route. In a way, it would have been a quiet echo of Mulder and Scully's relationship (which is probably one of the better developed ones I've seen on screen).

Bottom line, I'm still in the Mohinder as gay camp (pun somewhat intended). However, if a woman who can mirror Mohinder and not dominate him came along, I'd be willing to try it on for size. If the writing team would just get their heads out of their asses (and fire J.J. Philbin), I could buy Mohinder being either/or...or maybe liking whatever he finds. ;)