Raiyuu

Yeah, if Peter wasn't [spoiler]dead in the Dark Future timeline, then he's not dead in this one either. Just in really bad shape from a) exploding with the force of a nuclear bomb and b) falling down from however high Nathan flew him[/spoiler]. I won't say he's survived worse, but regeneration seems to heal absolutely anything as long as nothing's lodged in the brain.

It probably simplifies business deals for him to always [spoiler]possess the same cat. It means his partners always know it's him, presumably, instead of him having to surreptitiously crawl up to them in grasshopper-form and whisper "It's me, Mao"[/spoiler]. Or maybe he's just a cat person?

The preview made me think we were in for a homage to the Cowboy Bebop episode with Cowboy Andy ... it wasn't, thankfully, but there are similarities between Andy and Gai, namely their role as dramatic irony magnet. In both cases we can see just how wrong they are throughout the episode, but still get to watch them bumble through with their misconceptions. Maybe Gai will become a samurai after episode 8? So our [spoiler]wax-eared widow is duping the hapless lovestruck detective into catching Mao for her. It might be that she's specifically after Mao, but if she (or her organisation) is after Mao as a way of targeting Hei's gang, then maybe we'll get some more light thrown on exactly who they are and what they do in part 2[/spoiler].

I thought it was pretty clear that [spoiler]Charles Deveaux was an empath, like Peter. Claude hinted heavily tat the existence of other empaths, and in the Peter/Charles sequence Charles said "invisibility ... always thought that'd be a good one to have," implying that he could collect powers the same way Peter does[/spoiler]. There's a nasty theory going around that [spoiler]Sylar may have munched Claude off-camera[/spoiler]. Anyone else notice the way he's been [spoiler]sneaking up on people these last couple of episodes? Ando in the loft, Peter and Noah in Kirby Plaza. Claude was so cool and so underused and made such a rapid exit, I might cry if he doesn't turn up again in volume two[/spoiler].

I think mine is along the lines of "Sorry, I'm away from the screen right now, maybe because my eyes are bleeding or because I sat on a porcupine!" Oh, and for a while it was "Hi, this is Matt's computer. He's not here right now so I will now proceed to chat you up sexfully in his place." That one didn't work so well because it couldn't continue to chat up - it just repeated that one line every time they replied.

Lunox, I hope you're planning on driving that tank in an urban environment. You know they tune the suspension on 4x4s so if you run over a queue of toddlers on their way to preschool, you won't even feel it?

Who's [spoiler]Uluru[/spoiler]? I'm [b]sooo[/b] glad [spoiler]Sylar isn't dead. Mainly because his fight with Peter was a massive anticlimax. I wanted to see them both ripping up Kirby Plaza with telekinesis, ice-casting, radioactive pavement-melting ... we needed invisible Peter running rings round Sylar, and he could have absorbed Nikki's strength and DL's phasing while he was there, for an extra edge. There's so much they could have done with that scene and instead we got a couple of punches from Peter before Hiro showed up with the quick fix[/spoiler]. *Phew* Rant over. That aside, I really enjoyed it. Can't wait for volume two!

In term-time, while I'm living at university, I drive a (now slightly rusting) sunburst-yellow Raleigh Avalanche that I've had since I was about twelve, yay! It still serves me well. Then during the holidays I get the use of the family car, a navy blue Peugot 106 Zest. I didn't like it much when I started driving it because the accelerator felt really floppy compared to the car I took my test in, but I'm used to it now. And in fact the family just bought a new car, so I'll have more or less exclusive use of the 106 during the holidays (until my brother learns to drive, which is looking dangerously close). Don't know what a 106 looks like? [u][url="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Peugeot_106_open_phase2.jpg/800px-Peugeot_106_open_phase2.jpg"]Click![/url][/u] Except mine is much darker blue.

The 'dark future' timeline we saw a couple of episodes ago has already been steered off-course. [spoiler]In that timeline, Sylar could phase through objects, implying that he had killed DL and taken his power - but with DL's death at Linderman's hands, that path is closed to him.[/spoiler] So even if it's a very minor change, that exact timeline has been averted - and that means it's very definitely possible to stop the bomb. I needed to tell myself that - I was starting to worry that they'd pull a 'the bomb happens in every timeline, it's inevitable, you can't stop it' twist ending.

I may have to watch the last couple of episodes again to catch all the explanation, but I'm pretty sure when November 11 was standing by the map of South America ([spoiler]which did indeed show a large portion of the continent occupied by Heaven's Gate[/spoiler]) he mentioned something about "[spoiler]the disappearance of Heaven's Gate X number of years ago[/spoiler]". Ditto on Havoc, but rather that than her going back to her old self.

So, episode six kind of suggests that [spoiler]eating loads of food[/spoiler] is something Hei has [b]always [/b]done, and not actually his Contract remuneration. Havoc said something along the lines of [spoiler]"I've seen no sign of your remuneration ... are you actually a Contractor?"[/spoiler] I'm sure it'll all be explained, and that it'll have something to do with the [spoiler]Heaven's Gate, which used to be in South America and then disappeared, and which Hei, Havoc and Bai were somehow involved with[/spoiler]... And I'm [b]very [/b]pleased that the months look like they're sticking around. They were too cool to write out after two episodes.

AHAHAHAHA. There, now we've all had a good laugh this thread can go die in the darkest stinkiest corner of OB Purgatory. Honestly, it was 7 pages of "I lost," "oh no you made me lose too," even before it died. There's no mileage left. You're flogging a dead horse. Not to mention, [i]making written reference to The Game is against the rules of The Game. [/i]...does that mean I lose? [b]Thread banished from my life.[/b]

I don't think it's even [b]necessary.[/b] Smoking gets such a bad rep in biology classes, PSHE classes, the news, doctors' recommendations, everything. Not showing smokers in below 12-rated films isn't going to actually make a difference. On a related note, every enclosed space in England is going smoke-free in the next couple of months. [b]That[/b] will discourage smoking, when you have to excuse yourself to go stand in the rain if you want to do it.

You scared me for a moment there ... I thought I'd completely forgotten! But it's just you crazy American types with your different dates for Mothers' Day. I didn't think it had been a year since I hunted round Windsor for those flowers, heh. (Mothers' Day in Britain is on the fourth Sunday of Lent, for those not in the know.) Can we use this thread for more than just saying "Happy Mother's Day," please? As far as I know there's only one active mother on OB, so the messages that don't go further than the greeting are a bit wasted. She'd appreciate breakfast in bed more than a message on an anime board, I'm sure! Having said that, here's a US-variety Mothers' Day greeting for Aaryanna_Mom - hope you had a good one and that Aaryanna remembered and everything!

Yes indeedy. That one, and the many versions of Matsuda's mattress stunt, were pretty classic. Are you getting these from 2ch? For me personally, the anime's biggest achievement over the manga is that it's made me interested in the Mello/Near relationship. I know there was a lot of Mello/Near fan rivalry - as you'd expect in any high-profile series like DN - but when I read the manga I honestly thought they were both a bit meh. I wasn't bothered either way about either of them. But with Near animated and voiced, I'm suddenly far more intrigued by his character. He's inherited L's twisted sense of morality - there's the same willingness to sacrifice a life to test the validity of the Note. And some of his expressions, combined with sensitive voice acting, actually make him quite a disturbing kid. It's way he smiles at things, like he's more interested in seeing events unfold, and how they relate to the larger puzzle, than in how the events affect him or his team. When [spoiler]Demegawa's mob are attacking the SPK headquarters, for instance. You can see him grinning because he can see that this is more evidence for 'L' also being Kira; he's far less bothered with the concrete relevance of the situation, which is that there's a baying mob outside that want to burn him at the stake[/spoiler].

[quote name='Allamorph][font=Arial']Try attempting to alter a character's personality because you don't particularly care for some of his habits. I tried that once and went bone-dry for a solid month.[font=Verdana][/quote]So write something else until you get your mojo back. There's no such thing as going completely dry. I agree that sometimes you need a break from a particular story so you can step back and see it more objectively (or because you're just plain bored of it), but this idea that you can completely lose all ability to write [b]anything [/b]for a protracted period of time is a load of hogwash. [/font][/font]

Episode five sheds even more light on the surveillance sprite issue; I knew this was a professional enough series to explain stuff gradually as it went along. The little boy from [spoiler]MI6 - presumably a Doll like Yin - seems able to make them appear in glass, or maybe plastic (he had his hand on the car window and later on the sign by the staircase)[/spoiler]. So it would seem Dolls can each monitor things through a different medium, like water or whatever. Looks like we'll get some Hei backstory in episode six, anyway. And the remunerations in this episode were pretty genius.

Writer's block is a myth. True fact. Can't find that synonym? Write [b]something.[/b] If it's your first draft it'll most likely be a load of rubbish, but the important thing is to write [b]something[/b] on that piece of paper/screen that you can go back to later and edit into a masterpiece. Or if you really can't progress you can always cheat and use [u][url="http://thesaurus.reference.com"]the thesaurus that [b]isn't [/b]in your head[/url].[/u]

I'm pretty content to wait until it's explained more fully, but the surveillance sprites appear to be a feature of Yin's water-related power. If I remember right they've appeared in pools and puddles of water before, and only ran along the phone lines when it was raining outside.

...aaaaaand now we're really off the rails. Congrats everyone for not letting this thread disintegrate, but I think Hylian is well and truly introduced to OB now, so it's served its purpose. Hylian, if you want to discuss video games, head over to Hardwired. I don't go there much but there's probably a 'favourite game' thread or something of the sort going on. [b]Thread locked.[/b]

You think the sin wizards at NarutoFan would tell you [i]anything[/i] that could stop you visiting their site for a week?

[quote name='Ezekiel']I'm the only female Jamie in my school, as far as I know, and given that I have the spelling usually associated with males doesn't help. (The feminine form usually being Jaime, but pronounced the same.)[/quote]I always thought "Jaime" was supposed to be pronounced "High-me" with a guttural first "H" sound ... am I completely insane, or is that some kind of Eastern European pronounciation?

[quote name='Kei']With a bit more pressure, the United States should start actively trying to start doing things to combat it (like maybe actually signing the friggin' Kyoto Protocol like most of the rest of the world already has).[/quote]The good news is that George W. Bush recently made concessions to the effect that actually, maybe there is something to this Global Warming malarkey after all, and that maybe the USA has a responsibility to do something about it. The bad news is that he reckons he'll solve the problem with [url=http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1999968,00.html][u]giant space mirrors[/u][/url]. :animesigh

Keep all the "ZOMG 2007DB iz acksherly Tical Blue" confined to PMs please, people. I'm happy to say I've never had trouble with my name: Matt. One syllable, fairly common, difficult to get wrong (although some people insist on spelling it with one T like I'm some kind of prima donna, that's a teensy problem compared to some of you guys...). So yeah. Thank you parents, for giving me a normal name.

His name is Hei, not Kei. Or Li Xiengshun, if you like. I'm interested to see exactly what his relationship is with Huang and Yin. ANN describes Yin as Hei's partner, but thus far he's hardly been in the same shot with her. Who's the boss? Huang seems to hand down the jobs to Hei, but is there someone above him, detailing the contracts? [spoiler]And what's with the talking cat? Is he a contractor, with 'being a cat' his weird remuneration?[/spoiler]