Syler + Cockroach = ??

[Mr. Credible]

so, it seemed like the writers or whoever were making an awfully big deal about that cockroach in Syler's cell, no? and he was just staring at it like it meant something, so...

i'm usually not good at these kinds of things, but i was just thinking with what Syler can do, and what a cockroach can do, what could Syler 'get' from a cockroach? like what he's got from so many other people with abilities... i mean, they never really said that Syler's abitlities that he steals have to come from people... isn't his gift just 'finding out the way things work'? or whatever?

anyways, the ability to survive the aftermath of a nuclear blast (like a cockroach supposedly can) seems kind of pertinent, so...

well, sorry if it's been discussed, but i thought it was a good idea.

 

[Mr. Credible]

ooh! or maybe with his new cockroach powers he'd be able to hang around 'nuclear man' long enough to get his powers?

 

[Lurk]

It could just be a reference to Mohinder's comment in the first episode that if God created life in his own image, then God must be a cockroach. Sylar, who I think wants to be god-like (i.e., all powerful), is left staring his very dream and what he's ultimately becoming, metaphorically (god/ugly critter). You know, be careful what you ask for? That was my take, anway, that it was just a visual for Sylar's condition.

 

[Mysterio]

It could just be a reference to Mohinder's comment in the first episode that if God created life in his own image, then God must be a cockroach. Sylar, who I think wants to be god-like (i.e., all powerful), is left staring his very dream and what he's ultimately becoming, metaphorically (god/ugly critter). You know, be careful what you ask for? That was my take, anway, that it was just a visual for Sylar's condition.

bingo.

 

[faceplant]

It could just be a reference to Mohinder's comment in the first episode that if God created life in his own image, then God must be a cockroach. Sylar, who I think wants to be god-like (i.e., all powerful), is left staring his very dream and what he's ultimately becoming, metaphorically (god/ugly critter). You know, be careful what you ask for? That was my take, anway, that it was just a visual for Sylar's condition.

beat me to it.

 

[Duende Verde]

Sylar + Cockroach = Crazy Delicious
No, wait...
That's Mr. Pibb + Red Vines

 

[Antrax255]

You know how they cockroaches can survive nuclear blasts...maybe Sylar discovered how dat works?

 

[hippie_hunter]

Cockroaches don't survive nuclear blasts, they survive the nuclear fallout.

 

[Lurk]

Maybe Sylar figured out how to live without his head! That's how he's rearranging his brains. It all makes sense now.

 

[fu manchu]

a very funny movie with singing cockroaches!! t:

 

[Mr. Credible]

It could just be a reference to Mohinder's comment in the first episode that if God created life in his own image, then God must be a cockroach. Sylar, who I think wants to be god-like (i.e., all powerful), is left staring his very dream and what he's ultimately becoming, metaphorically (god/ugly critter). You know, be careful what you ask for? That was my take, anway, that it was just a visual for Sylar's condition.

ah.

well yeah, that makes sense... i didn't remember that monologue.

 

[Lurk]

Just 'cause it's an interesting quote........

"(...) we are not the pinnacle of so-called evolution. That honor belongs to the lowly cockroach. Capable of living for months without food. Remaining alive headless for weeks at a time. Resistant to radiation. If God has indeed created Himself in His own image, then I submit to you that God is a cockroach."

Also interesting......

(1) Cockroaches breath through spiracles which are in each body segment and the blood does not carry oxygen to the tissues. The spiracles deliver air to each cell of the body through a set of tubes called tracheae. The brain does not control the breathing through the spiracles.
(2) The cockroach does not have blood pressure the way a mammal does and so cutting off the head does not lead to uncontrolled bleeding.
(3) The cockroach is a poikilotherm or cold blooded animal. They need much less food and a one day meal would be enough to last them a whole month as long as they were not extremely active. Without a head the cockroach would just sit around without doing anything much.

All this along with a cool temperature could allow the cockroach to last about a month without need for their head, as long as they did not get infected with a mold, bacterium or virus, which could kill them prematurely.

I guess they can even learn to avoid electric shocks without their heads!

 

[GL1]

Interesting... I think the analogy is important, and to be noted, but I also can't help but presume that Sylar will learn how to survive radiation or some such... It's just a bit too convenient and it's such a popular myth...

 

[Lurk]

I agree, the metaphor is the visual's most obvious purpose, buuuuut it is strange that heads are coming off and there is a threat of a nuclear disaster.

Could the roach possibly help him escape? If he doesn't take power from it, will it inspire him? What if roaches are significant, given their strange abilities (highly unlikely)?

 

[Avalanche]

They did focus an awful lot on the cockroach. The way I saw it though, it was more to show how far down Sylar had fallen. All his power, and he lay defeated on the floor, a cockroach scuttling around him.

 

[3 Dev Adam]

It don't know how radiation affects cockroaches, but if you put one on the microwave oven, she will just walk around like nothing is happening.

 

[Lurk]

Can Ted contain radiation or only emit it? Seems like everyone he knew would have radiation poisoning if he couldn't contain it, even inadvertantly. Could he control radiation outside his own body (i.e., the explosion)?

 

[Frico]

It could just be a reference to Mohinder's comment in the first episode that if God created life in his own image, then God must be a cockroach. Sylar, who I think wants to be god-like (i.e., all powerful), is left staring his very dream and what he's ultimately becoming, metaphorically (god/ugly critter). You know, be careful what you ask for? That was my take, anway, that it was just a visual for Sylar's condition.

 

[3 Dev Adam]

Just for the sake of sakes, I typed in "Church of the Cockroach" at Google and found this:

We orthodox pagans hold the members of the phyllum arthropoda in the highest esteem. Their external skeletons are wondrously protective and they are fabulously adapted to extraordinarily beautiful decorations. Their many legs are also an amazement. Their motivation and their agility are beyond compare. Their capacity for survival is extraordinarily impressive. For 300 million years they have prospered under all conditions.

We human beings, after a mere 2-1/2 million years, are having difficulty maintaining a livable environment for ourselves; consequently, the declared totem animal of the First National Church of the Exquisite Panic, Inc. -- the animal whom we choose to emulate in its fabulously creative flirtation with life -- is one of the most gifted of this gifted phyllum: the cockroach!

The cockroach, unlike the traditional totem animals -- e.g., the lion, the tiger, and the bear -- is in no danger whatever of extinction.


Therefore;
we admonish you
to study the ways
of the cockroach!

 

[Chuck_the_bear]

I think Hiro chops off his head with the sword and Syler lives for a week..

 

[Ghostvirus]

Just for the sake of sakes, I typed in "Church of the Cockroach" at Google and found this:

We orthodox pagans hold the members of the phyllum arthropoda in the highest esteem. Their external skeletons are wondrously protective and they are fabulously adapted to extraordinarily beautiful decorations. Their many legs are also an amazement. Their motivation and their agility are beyond compare. Their capacity for survival is extraordinarily impressive. For 300 million years they have prospered under all conditions.

We human beings, after a mere 2-1/2 million years, are having difficulty maintaining a livable environment for ourselves; consequently, the declared totem animal of the First National Church of the Exquisite Panic, Inc. -- the animal whom we choose to emulate in its fabulously creative flirtation with life -- is one of the most gifted of this gifted phyllum: the cockroach!

The cockroach, unlike the traditional totem animals -- e.g., the lion, the tiger, and the bear -- is in no danger whatever of extinction.


Therefore;
we admonish you
to study the ways
of the cockroach!

This does beg one question. If the Roach has been on the planet for 300 million years. Why hasn't it evolved?

 

[WebSlinger666]

This does beg one question. If the Roach has been on the planet for 300 million years. Why hasn't it evolved?

well they have considering all the differnt types of species there are in the world.. but the basic priciple of a roach is that they have the awsome ability to adapt to basicly all enviroments in a very short amout of time.

 

[3 Dev Adam]

This does beg one question. If the Roach has been on the planet for 300 million years. Why hasn't it evolved?

That is a gross misconcepction. They DID evolved, a lot. Hissin' roaches are a relatively new species. What will come next? Talking roaches?

And so did the sharks. People always assume that sharks and crocodiles never evolved, but they did, and still are. Recently, they found a shark with the octopus ability to change its colours.

 

[primemover]

This does beg one question. If the Roach has been on the planet for 300 million years. Why hasn't it evolved?

For evolution to happen you need environmental pressure to force selection, many creatures on this planet have adapted to a niche that happens to not have changed enough in so many years they appear to be the same.

I say 'appears' because even though they are still cockroaches and still insects, that doesn't mean they haven't adapted in some or many ways since.

 

[primemover]

One of my early theories after seeing that cockroach scuttle around is that Sylar will take 'something' from that cockroach, either by eating it or however he does his trick, and that 'something' will gain him some limited ability to withstand whatever they have him drugged on, since I doubt all human drugs work on insects.

Also, cockroaches, or any creature for that matter can not survive a nuclear blast, but they can, as a species, survive the fallout and subsequent nuclear winter. Some of this is due to it's durability, but most of it is because there are billions of them, and they are small and live among great cover.

Our ancestors survived one of the greatest cataclysms to ever hit the earth, the supposed meteor that took out the dinosaurs and the majority of the other species on earth. They survived because they were small and could hide effectively, whereas the big ones had no chance.