Heroes (TV series)/Headscratchers/Knox

Why is Knox like a Power Rangers villain? "RAAWWR! THE HUMANS' FEAR GIVES ME STRENGTH!"

• I guess they didn't want his ability to be a carbon-copy of Jessica's. To be fair, he was reasonably casual about it, and never actually talked in ALL CAPS.
  • I reckon it's like you said: make him a bit of a threat, without just giving us another Jessica. It does show how they're starting to run out of powers to give people now, which will make creating an actual threatening villain difficult. Personally, I think they should have kept Maury "Nightmare Man" Parkman around - what could be more threatening than a super-powerful telepath?
    • Well actually, he is still around, and is Knox's gosh darned boss. Note that Maury is manipulating the entire Pinehearst company through reading the mind of none other than the late Arthur Petrelli.
• Consider the context. If anything, it's arguably more plausible than painting images of the future or slowing time to a crawl.

What's with the weird difference between Knox's power and Jessica/Niki's power?

Knox's power is supposed to be a strength-enhancement, which is pretty much the same as what Jessica's is meant to be. But pretty much whenever Jessica punched someone on-screen, they got sent flying across the room. When powered-up Knox punches you, his fist just goes right through. Did the writers spend the break between seasons watching Kung Pow over and over?

• It's all a matter of intent, really. Whenever we saw Niki or Jessica fight someone on-camera, they usually weren't trying to kill anyone. However, there were multiple occasions where Jessica did use her super-strength in a lethal fashion off-camera. (The first episode when she killed Linderman's thugs, ripping apart D.L.'s former crew, etc). It seems to me that Jessica was capable of using her super-strength to a lethal degree but that she only did it when she had time to clean up and hide the bodies, because she was a smart, methodical killer. Niki, once she had full control of her strength, was also inclined toward using non-lethal levels of force, being a basically good person. Knox however, is an unrepentant criminal, and thus would have no reason to hold back on using his power.
  • I also think, given that Knox's specific power is dependent on how much fear he can absorb to power his super-strength, he might have learned to focus what he had to use it as quickly as possible - hence his use of lethal punches through the chest rather than shoves into the wall.
• My guess? "Budget." Despite Season 3 sucking in general (that is only this troper's opinion, mind you), they did a really good job of demonstrating superstrenth. Mohinder CRUMPLED A REVOLVER LIKE A BEER CAN, for Pete's sake.
  • Very good point, Above Troper. JBM cancelled.
  • There's also the fact that Jessica was punching non-expendable, non-illusion characters.
• Why, exactly, can't Knox simply have different, and more powerful, abilities than Nikki? Not all superhumans are made alike, after all. I always presumed he put hands through people because he was just plain stronger than Jessica, and more homicidal. What really JBM? How *none* of the bricks have any kind of enhanced durability, at least such as anybody ever demonstrated. Would it have been so wrong to let somebody bounce bullets for once?