[Tamir]

As I said, it makes no sense. Many things in this show don't.

[Tyris]

[Tamir]

It does not. He could have reclaimed that ability since.

[electricpanda]

I still blame forgetful writers!
_________________
Dubbed Pants by AsA, via the way of the electric pants.

[devilman2045]

[Maeniel]

Actually...that's wrong. Sylar's ability is to understand how things work; when he looks at somebody's brain, he understands how it works and how their power works. When he understands it, his brain own brain somehow changes and he can use their power. Because of his ability to understand things, he has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and his curiosity gets the better of him. He wants to understand "special" people, so his curiosity gets the better of him and he ends up killing them.

Peter's is far more simple. He can indeed mimic because mimicry is defined as "the act of copying or imitating something or someone." Peter copies people's powers when he meets them, and he unleashes these powers by associating them with the person whose powers they relate to; at least, that's what they established in the episode where the invisible man pushes Peter off the roof of the building and they discover that he began healing when Claire's face flashed into his mind. Since then, they've had him use powers when he lost his memory, and he also absorbed everything Sylar had learned from his victims. My guess is that his powers are more subconscious, and that he couldn't use them when he "tried." Like when he was just jumping off the jungle gym, he couldn't fly, but he could when he wasn't trying and Nathan popped into his head. Likewise, Sylar now has these abilities permanently, as if they were his own--I think that Peter only needs to think of Sylar when using, say, telekinesis.

So the show has established two very SIMILAR powers in Sylar and Peter, but they are fundamentally different. I'm sure that Sylar wouldn't need to kill if he thought to use an MRI, for example.

In addition, Arthur Petrelli's power has the same end result; he is able to replicate somebody's power. Problem is, he he takes it away from the person in question. As far as Peter goes re: copying Sylar's power, it's not that he feels the need to kill. He has overwhelming curiosity which LEADS to killing people in order to study their brain. It's not a killing instinct outright. And we don't know what Arthur's power is outright or how it works; we only know that he takes away another person's power and is able to use it later. Until we know the mechanics, we can't for sure say that he got Sylar's unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

As far as secondary/primary abilities, I use secondary to describe them simply because Peter wasn't born with them and we don't know if they come and go. On the other hand, we see that Sylar has retained all of his abilities, making them as permanent as his own "understanding" ability.

As far as the rest of your second paragraph...I'm not at all sure that I understand what you're trying to say. Rephrase please?
_________________
Keeper of Zaebos' and Jormand's powers.

[Squeeself]

See, what Squee can't figure out is why Peter having Sylar's ability from the future was necessary if his father was just going to take all his powers. Is it gonna make his father a killing maniac or...oh wait, he's already the villain. Huh? Yeah, we'll see how they work it back in I guess.

One thing I've noticed is the writers have recognized what most everyone else noticed...season 2 sucked. They're fixing a number of the problems from then. One being Claire--she's again a unique figure that she was in the original season, rather than just another copycat power. Though I am annoyed that Adam Monroe is gone. Well, actually, I think they should've kept him in the coffin for further down the line. Still, having Claire being the only regenerating person is a good thing...and the comment about no one being able to kill her is interesting.

Squee agrees on the Mohinder thing...Most annoying part about the show now. But everything else is going much better than in the failure that was season 2. Even Hiro is likeable again! Hiro is what made Squee love the show in the first place, and they managed to ruin his lovable faux-naivete. It's back again though

[Tamir]

[Squeeself]

The copycat heroes don't count for any powers at all really