Heroes speculation

[norwich36]

I've been having a few interesting discussions with people in my comments and in other peoples comments about Heroes, and so I'm bringing those together here for my own reference and also to see if anyone has thoughts about them. Also, it's an excuse to use my new Niki icon.

First of all, random_serious and I were kind of bemused that Clearly Evil Pixie's ( TM latxcvi) name is actually Eden. Is that an ironic usage? That prompted me to look up the meaning of different characters' names. Here is what I was able to find, though I don't actually speak Japanese, so if anyone can weigh in with corrections that would be great.

Niki: Depending on its derivation, it either means "victory of the people" (if From Nichola--though Nike by itself is just victory) or "true image" (if taken from Veronica).

Mohinder: great Indra (and Indra is the Vedic god of thunder, patron of warriors)

Claire: Clear, bright, famous

Michah: who is like God

Matthew: Gift of God

Nathan: giver (or if it's short for Nathaniel, God has given)

Peter: rock

Bennett: from "Benedict," meaning Blessed

Isaac: he laughs

I couldn't find specific definitions for Hiro (Hiroshi means generous, but I couldn't find Hiro by itself) or Ando (the word means "relief" if the online Japanese to English dictionary I found can be trusted), though of course Hiro must have been deliberately chosen since it sounds like Hero.

I don't know if I draw any conclusions from these names, whether they're deliberate or accidental, intentional or ironic, but it was interesting to look them up.

And behind the cut, unrelated speculation on Niki and her alter-ego that include spoilers for 1x06 (but I'm unspoiled beyond that--please don't spoil me!)

This is pretty much verbatim from something I wrote in latxcvi's journal:

I didn't realize the episode title was "Better Halves." That makes the Niki storyline more interesting to me, in a way--which half is really supposed to be the better half? I mean, obviously we sympathize with Niki, and Ikin is a murdering psychopath, but she is better at getting necessary things done than Niki.

I wonder if the Ikin persona emerged only when D.L. left? Niki had that great line "I became a different person when you left," which does seem to imply that. I guess I'm unclear on the timeline--was it that D.L. left to do the job, then Ikin framed him and killed his gang, or did he only leave after he'd been framed? If the latter, my theory won't hold, but if the former, I wonder if Ikin is somehow linked to Niki becoming an internet sex worker.

To create that sort of fantasy persona is another kind of doubling: a self that is not who you are but who other people want you to be. Maybe Ikin is the inverse of that? Or maybe she *is* the internet persona Niki created, but one that took on a life of its own? Of course, it's more likely that Ikin is just Niki's shadow self, or her id, as latxcvi has suggested, but it's sort of interesting to think that she might actually be a separate person.

Comments

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Are those question marks symbols that just aren't showing up for me?

It's possible that we have seen their names written in kanji, but if so I have not noticed.

[supacat.livejournal.com]

I guess the kanji aren't showing up (your browser may not be able to view Japanese text). You could always try changing the text/view/encoding to one of the Japanese options, like JIS, but it's, er, probably not worth it. :-)