And yeah, he unexpectedly appears/disappears -quite- a few times - I'm inclined to think he has short-range teleportation, m'self.
although I am still a little curious about the exact details of the "original" series of events (on a related note: so pissed off at how every time it looks like the Elder Heroes are going to start talking about what specifically their "sins" are, they get evasive and don't mention any specifics beyond the plague.justifiably evasive, perhaps, but still!).
But also: given where they were when the bomb went off, how did Sylar acquire Candace and DL's abilities in that timeline? I think this is a case of time travel being treated as a way to present a What If more than a logical extrapolation of events, which could be a trope of its own (I'm looking at you, Ultimate Fantastic Four). I'm not sure Hiro's time travel works that way, but either way, Sylar was still alive in that timeline and would have been killed by the explosion if that was the case.Thus, the explosion happened at ground level and destroyed NYC. I imagine that Sylar, not being badly wounded, was able to prevent Nathan from flying Peter off.
I believe that the idea is that because he jumped into the future, Hiro wasn't at Kirby Plaza in the time just before the explosion, and he wasn't able to stab Sylar.First season Heroes, if you think about it, generally does make some kind of sense. That's logical, yes? Hiro convinces Peter to save Claire, Claire convinces Nathan to stop the 'bomb'. Meeting Claire was the reason he and his mother grew tiny little slivers of conscience. "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World." Nathan never met Claire in that universe because Claire was dead. Also, if Nathan had picked up Sylar he wouldn't have survived because Sylar can't fly Nathan, being a reasonably one-dimensional character who is generally apethetic, nonetheless cares about family (because everyone does in TV) so he was moved into action he wouldn't have been moved into for a stranger, even with New York (and therefore his family) in danger. Peter was exploding rather than Sylar.that's pretty weak, but I guess it could have planted a seed of doubt. So how did -that- cause the one difference that prevented that future, ie, Nathan growing a conscience and flying in to save the day? I guess he -did- go up to Nathan and call him a very bad man. Which means the only difference from that timeline and the show's is that Hiro went to that timeline and saw that future. But then he doesn't change it any further - instead, Present!Hiro goes to that timeline, and sees everything. He goes back to his own time and discovers that that wasn't sufficient, because -Peter- exploded instead. Future!Hiro determines that the pivotal change in history that he needs to make to prevent NYC from being destroyed is to tell Peter "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!" - because it was Claire's regenerative abilities that allowed Sylar to survive his katana wound and still explode.