It was just a hunch that it was their original plan. I remember early speculation that it was purgatory and even the actors thought it might be purgatory and said they hoped it wasn't. Then the end came along and it was revealed that the flash-sideways were in fact taking place in the afterlife. When I looked back on the show, especially the crash and season 6, I started thinking that maybe the original plan was to have the island be the afterlife and that they may have changed course after the easy guess and negative reaction. If you think about it, it seems to fit.
Has it been confirmed that that was the original plan for the show? Because that would have sucked!!!Good idea to change it.
Anyone else missing LOST?
- Thread starter startrekwatcher
- Start date
Yep that's where I got that. There is no way that one woman was able to kill a whole village of people. The only answer is that the smoke monster was around before MiB was killed and rather than the convoluted "there were two smoke monsters" logic, I assume that when Jacob killed MiB, he fused with the Smoke Monster corrupting it with his desires to leave the island.
Also, Jacob can't kill the Monster and visa versa, yet Jacob killed the MiB 10,000 years ago, so I assume it's not the fact that they're brothers that prevents Smokey from killing Jacob, but the fact that Smokey is an agent of Jacob, albeit a corrupted one.
Re: the infertility
Since the Island was the wellspring of souls for humanity, any child conceived on the Island would be still-born since it didn't get a soul. The Island soul-less baby targeting device can't see the babies on the Island only those off it; it's like trying to hit a target with a cannon right next to the cannon.
Since the Island was the wellspring of souls for humanity, any child conceived on the Island would be still-born since it didn't get a soul. The Island soul-less baby targeting device can't see the babies on the Island only those off it; it's like trying to hit a target with a cannon right next to the cannon.
Or, ya know, a nuke went off and the island is still full of radiation.
Otherwise Ethan never would have been born in the 70s.
I think that the idea that all the characters were dead and that the island was purgatory wasn't the original plan for the show if it last for several seasons. I think if was the back up plan in case the show was canceled in the first season.
Though it wasn't bluntly explained on the show the infertility was caused by Jughead going off during the Incident. Before then women did give birth on the island. Ethan was the last to be born. The bomb cause the island's electromagnetic energy to go a bit screwy. According to the epilogue on the DVD animals near the electromagnetic pockets had problems giving birth so I guess the bomb caused some electromagnetism to spill out over the entire island.
Though it wasn't bluntly explained on the show the infertility was caused by Jughead going off during the Incident. Before then women did give birth on the island. Ethan was the last to be born. The bomb cause the island's electromagnetic energy to go a bit screwy. According to the epilogue on the DVD animals near the electromagnetic pockets had problems giving birth so I guess the bomb caused some electromagnetism to spill out over the entire island.
ProtoAvatar
Fleet Captain
It's obvious the scenarists wrote too many 'mysteries' to which they didn't know the answer. And, despite the apologetic argument that 'Lost' was about the characters, the largest part of the series established/explored these 'mysteries'.
In short, the writers wrote themselves into corner.
And, when the time came to answer these 'mysteries', they 'forgot' about most of them. The few that were answered were answered with a generic 'it's magic'.
This is lazy writing, NOT good or ambitious writing.
In short, the writers wrote themselves into corner.
And, when the time came to answer these 'mysteries', they 'forgot' about most of them. The few that were answered were answered with a generic 'it's magic'.
This is lazy writing, NOT good or ambitious writing.
Those answers are completely unsatisfactory because they, like the finale, answer nothing.
Yes, I would have liked more of the nature of the Island spelled out. Not necessarily everything, but enough to figure it out, and no, there wasn't enough, not by half.
Okay, the numbers. What about them? They featured so prominently, yet, amounted to nothing, when you added them together.
This thread is a classic example of what is wrong with LOST. Everyone has a theory. Noen of them are true. Even Lindelof's isn't true. Because none of them, the creators, settled on one idea.
As I said, they missed out on a sale from me.
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Nardpuncher
Rear Admiral
I agree wholeheartedly with the last two posts.
People can say they didn't like the resolution but you can't say it was lazy writing just because the show didn't fulfill your personal expectations. That's just ignorant and wrong.
The answers were there. The series chose not to explore the long history of the island but gave us the answers that were importantly to the story, to both the thematic structure and the plot. I am sorry, but this is what most stories do. DS9 never went into the history of the wormhole aliens; the origins of the Borg were always left vague; Tolkien did not try to deal with the entire history of middle earth in the LOTR; etc.
More often than not, stories never include the complete backstory that has actually been written.
If you take enough time to look around online, you will see answers and information about all of these things. For examples, here is the description of the Valenzetti Equation from the lostpedia:
The answers were there. The series chose not to explore the long history of the island but gave us the answers that were importantly to the story, to both the thematic structure and the plot. I am sorry, but this is what most stories do. DS9 never went into the history of the wormhole aliens; the origins of the Borg were always left vague; Tolkien did not try to deal with the entire history of middle earth in the LOTR; etc.
More often than not, stories never include the complete backstory that has actually been written.
If you take enough time to look around online, you will see answers and information about all of these things. For examples, here is the description of the Valenzetti Equation from the lostpedia:
^ The difference is that the island was set up as a central mystery. The borg and Middle-earth weren't.
You know, I love Lost, loved the finale for the most part and it will go down as one of the best shows in History for me. I also think we got a few more answers than some people claim but to say that "the answers were there" goes a bit too far for me. For instance, no one's given me the answer to what I posted a while back in this thread here:
To this point, no one seems to have an answer for any of these crucial, main plot points.
I didn't want a long history of the island or even a detailed one of the recent past. I just wanted to know what the nature of the smoke monster was, why he seemed to be able to be "called" by Ben when his daughter was killed and why it acted the way it did. Why did he want off the island, what would have really happened if he made it? While I don't expect an exhaustive history of the island, it would be nice if I even knew what the stakes actually even were and if the actions of the "smoke monster" were consistent with what we were told in the sixth season because they certainly didn't appear to be.
These should be in the show itself not in supplemetal material like podcasts, Q&As etc. So it doesn't count in my opinion.
In the end their reach exceeded their grasp and the whole thing got away from them.
If you thought they were going to answer what the Island was you were out of your mind. They repeatedly said they would not as that would destroy the atmosphere of the show and it would have. Giving too much away is a mistake and I guarantee if they revealed what the Island was people would be bitching about that.
Sure, people would bitch. They have a right to do that - As viewers/readers/consumers, if they don't like something, they *will* say that they didn't like it - that's no reason to cop-out. Look at (as comparison) how many people go on and on about the epilogue in JKR's HP7 book and how they hated it.
I guess some people think that vague answers that did get provided in the tv series count and some people think that they are so lame/vague they might as well be considered as not answered.
I didn't want a detailed midichlorian/scientific explanation - the cork thing and "EEEEVIL" comes into the world and the light/water looked and felt lame to me - "Water's blocked, Unblock water - Everything solved" - that's LAME!!
Also re Jacob's mommy having killed a bunch of egyptians who had been helping MIB harness the island's energy - just because Mommie dearest kills an entire village doesn't automatically imply smokey presence. There's so much weird mumbo-jumbo at the end ("Drink this, you will be immortal." "Drink this, you will be caretaker". "If you go into cave, you will have fate worse than death" etc. etc.) that it's possible she had a spell for that or burned some kinda poison root to do that. Have TPTB clarified that she turned into Smokey to achieve that? Cos otherwise it is conjecture like we all did *during* the show when we did not have answers.
So what would have been enough? Having a scientist point a gizmo at the island and declare that it was a sentient blob from outer space with unknowable motives? Or have the blob telepathically communicate with Jack and told him that it wanted humanity to evolve beyond their petty, squabbling selves and its mission in life was to help them do that by showing them flashbacks of their former mistakes? Should Jack call a press conference so the blob can explain itself to a breathlessly waiting world?
At what point does the explanation become cheesy and destroy the mystery? The borderline is going to be different for every viewer and mainly a function of temperament. So the writers chose a line and stopped there. If they'd chosen another line, they'd have a different bunch of viewers bitching at them.
I like that there is still conjecture to be had. Makes the series still fun after it ended.
ProtoAvatar
Fleet Captain
The reason explanations were not forthcoming was NOT ~'because the scenarists intended it in order to avoid Lost from being cheesy'.
If that were the case, establishing and detailing the mystery of the island/a lot of other mysteries - most unaddressed at the end - would NOT have been at the center of the plot, emphasized, during every Lost season.
The reason explanations were not forthcoming was that the writers wrote themselves into a corner and the only way out they saw was ignoring most questions and giving an ~'it's magic' solution to the rest.
This is bad, lazy writing - that's an objective fact. This doesn't change just because you like the ending, Temis the Red-Nosed Vorta.
Yep. That's why we had so much fun with the series and that's why I'm having so much fun with the series after it ended.
And ProtoAvatar, there is no objective fact when it comes to creative endeavors.
ProtoAvatar
Fleet Captain
As it hapens, recently, another poster conclusively proved your unsupported affirmation wrong, C_Miller:
http://trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=4612137&postcount=93
"I've never boughten into the idea that the value of art is completely subjective. It's as silly as me drawing a circle on a piece of paper and saying that my "artwork" is a better piece than a Van Gogh piece and then saying that's a valid statement because it happens to be my "opinion". Opinions can be (and often are) wrong.
There are intrinsic qualities to worthy pieces of art and as surely as I can say with confidence that Van Gogh is a better artist than I."
Another example of objective fact when it comes to artistic endeavors:
When writers write themselves into a corner and the only way out they find is to ignore most of their own story - well, that's, OBJECTIVELY, lazy, bad writing - regardless of whether you like it or not.
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