One of the reasons why Oh savors American tv shows is many of them are sprinkled with biblical metaphors, anecdotes, symbols and so forth. Therefore, while it is possible to relish those shows on the surface, extracting the biblical analogies and insinuations from the works and correlating them with the bible is not quite easy to pull off if you don't much background in Christianity.
In this respect, Oh has been liking "Heroes"in that it weaves some of the bilical characters with contemporary settings, imaginary ideas and futuristic concepts. And now while watching the lastest episode, Oh begins to wonder why the show revovles around Gabriel and how to comprehend the show by surmising the role that Gabriel is going to play as the narrative continues.
-->Gabriel vs Noah<--
Heroes, as the title implies, is a tv show where factitious characters with super powers live on earth, kill and protect each other. Although it is not still clear how the show is going to end, it seems like Gabriel (Sylar) is an anti-Christ while the rest of the characters makes attempts to stop him from disrupting the world. And what is most scary about Gabriel is that he has the ability to absorb the others' super powers.
At any rate, Oh has been always curious why the writers named the character "Gabriel" (By the way, there is a character named Noah and he is the one trying to keep the peace on earth by locking up the bad guys with great superpowers, such as Gabriel.) And Oh's been thinking that Noah, who is the ONLY character with NO absolute power, but with just sanity, wisdom and valiance, will survive the Apocalypse and save the earth eventually as Noah survived the Ark in the bible.
So, tonight Oh is parsing some of the vignettes in the bible where Gabriel is mentioned, such as Daniel and Luke. (Oh reads the Bible in English, however, in that Korean translation is just awful.)
- Drwaing of Gabriel-
Also, he does some Internet research and later feels disappointed. As much as the Bible and its interpretation are various, the approaches to Gabriel also are too many to count. But one fact, well, at least the traditionally consistent interpretation is that Gabriel is the angel of death. In this light, Oh begins to latch onto the character, Gabriel on Heroes.
However, Oh also unearths that there is a theory that Gabriel and Noah are the same individual. Well, since Daniel labels Gabriel as the Man of God, he thinks that Gabriel could be a person, but that there is no way Noah and Gabriel are the same person.
-Deluge of God-
Then, Oh thinks, while recalling the show, the very thin line between good(Noah) and bad(Gabriel). According to the bible, Noah saves his family and the animals from Deluge and thus receives a covenant from God and later repopulates the earth. (Recall the movie, Evan Almighty) Seemingly, Noah is trying to save his family, the other good characters and after all the earth while Gabriel is to destroy the entire world. But is that necessarily true?
Sometimes you need to empty something in order to fill it back up to the fullest. You can fill a cup that is half full by adding more to it. But then the water already in the cup will be still there and eventually dilute the fresh water. In the same manner, creation sometimes requires
downright devastation or destruction. While Noah protects the others, it might back fire in that those with special powers might use them for unethical purposes. If you have power, many are tempted to use it for their own and end up hurting others and shaking up the pre-existing orders controlling the world. So, if Noah fails and thus Gabriel wins, the world status goes back to nil, before Genesis or Big Bang and the regeneration might begin. And this might be a better situation than Apocalypse.
-Noah-
So, who is more righteous and virtuous? Is it Noah or Gabriel? And who is to blame and who is to extol?
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