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Big questions left unanswered

Or maybe, since Smokey had the light in him(?) or was made from the light, Locke's being special was that he could see that original light. He had to be special in some way because he was healed after crashing AND after being shot by Ben.

This is what I figured. Arabic myths related to the axis mundi describe it as a pillar of smoke, I guessed that Smokey was, in a way, an extension of the light in the island.
Interesting.

I think that also what's cool about LOST.
The more you talk to people, the more you learn. :)
 
Remember, when Locke first meets Smokey face to face he tells Jack that he looked into the eye of the island and it was beautiful. Too Locke, Smokey was a creature of beauty.

I assumed that he somehow saw the light of the island, not just the smoke, since he said, "I saw a very bright light. It was beautiful." It's possible that Smokey could emulate the light, or it's possible that what he saw wasn't at all Smokey.
Second time he meet Smokey he as willing to let it drag him underground. Remember, he even fought with Jack & Kate to let it take him.
I would hardly describe Smokey as beautiful so Ryan8Bit's right Locke saw the Light.
 
Forgive me, I have not read this entire thread yet

Just thought of a few of things that weren't addressed

1.) Why were the Others interested in taking children and running tests on them? Remember, they took Walt, and a big thing about all that was that they wanted to kidnap children and give them some kind of test.

2.) Why couldn't babies be born on the Island? Or whatever the whole deal was with birth on the Island.

3.) We never found out who actually built the 4 toed statue.
 
Forgive me, I have not read this entire thread yet

Just thought of a few of things that weren't addressed

1.) Why were the Others interested in taking children and running tests on them? Remember, they took Walt, and a big thing about all that was that they wanted to kidnap children and give them some kind of test.

2.) Why couldn't babies be born on the Island? Or whatever the whole deal was with birth on the Island.

3.) We never found out who actually built the 4 toed statue.
2)It had something to do with the Incident. They could have them before it, but not afterwards.

3)I assumed that some of the people Jacob brought to the Island built it.
 
3)I assumed that some of the people Jacob brought to the Island built it.

Okay, you just lead me down a cool train of thought.

It's been reported* that "Across The Sea" took place around 23-47 A.D. That's sort of upheld by the fact that Mother and Claudia were speaking Latin. So, it probably wasn't anyone Jacob brought to the island that was constructing Ancient Egyptian iconography. Rather, there were people there probably long before Claudia showed up.

Here's the cool part: there's a depiction of a smoke monster beneath the Temple that Ben sees in "Dead is Dead". And everything down there is crazy Egypt-style. This obviously pre-dates The Man in Black's transformation into Smokey.

So, there was a Smoke Monster on the island before The Man in Black. This explains how Mother fucked up his camp and screwed up his Well so easily.

How'd MiB stab and kill Mother if she was a smoke monster? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe a smokey can elect to be mortal.

It's not a new theory that Mother was a smoke monster but I haven't read a rationale for how that would work yet. Sorry if I'm treading over old ground.

* I read this at DarkUFO. I can't remember his source. It was probably one of his mysterious folks on the production team, which means it was likely in a script.
 
I very much like that idea. It's pretty clear that Mother had been around for a long time, and as soon as we saw that village burned to the ground, I immediately thought that she was a Smoke Monster. The question then becomes: How did she become a Smoke Monster? Was she already dead? Does being a Smoke Monster make you evil, or was she just a nutjob who had been doing her job way too long?
 
I very much like that idea. It's pretty clear that Mother had been around for a long time, and as soon as we saw that village burned to the ground, I immediately thought that she was a Smoke Monster. The question then becomes: How did she become a Smoke Monster? Was she already dead? Does being a Smoke Monster make you evil, or was she just a nutjob who had been doing her job way too long?
 
Didn't Terry O'Quinn say last night during the special that when Smokey & Locke meet for the first time, that Smokey picks him due to Locke's gullible nature to believe and be manipulated. That's why Smokey and Locke meet a few times face to face before Locke dies?
I remember something like that from the special, but it could be backstage interpretation. It's an awfully neat coincidence that Smokey chooses the same person that Richard and the Others have been anticipating for 50 years.
 
Forgive me, I have not read this entire thread yet

Just thought of a few of things that weren't addressed

1.) Why were the Others interested in taking children and running tests on them? Remember, they took Walt, and a big thing about all that was that they wanted to kidnap children and give them some kind of test.

2.) Why couldn't babies be born on the Island? Or whatever the whole deal was with birth on the Island.

3.) We never found out who actually built the 4 toed statue.

1&2 were likely connected. They didn't know why people couldn't have babies on the island so they were obviously engaged in some kind of study, so stealing kids likely had to do with that. Dharma was trying to figure out what the deal with the island was.

3. Well we've seen that many people have lived on the island over the years, so it was likely them. I don't think the importance of the statue is who built it, as much as it was to reveal that people have been living on the island for much longer than expected.

I was looking for some big questions here, but everything has pretty much been missing details. I wasn't expecting the finale to be a source book for every mystery in the series, so it didn't bother me that not all of the minutia was spelled out on the show. I already know now that there's some magical light at the heart of the island. Once I've accepted that, it's kind of pointless to me just how the donkey wheel worked or how exactly the light turned mr. black in to the smoke monster.

I think one of the side effects of the internet age is that everyone expects to know everything whether it's important to the story or not. I suppose it doesn't help that most of us are trek fans, and just about everything in the trek universe is explained in extraneous publications.
 
I very much like that idea. It's pretty clear that Mother had been around for a long time, and as soon as we saw that village burned to the ground, I immediately thought that she was a Smoke Monster. The question then becomes: How did she become a Smoke Monster? Was she already dead? Does being a Smoke Monster make you evil, or was she just a nutjob who had been doing her job way too long?

I think it's reasonable to assume she became a Smoke Monster the same way MiB did. She knew enough to tell Jacob that going down there was a fate worse than death. I can only assume she knew from experience.

Now, does being a smoke monster make you evil? Here's where we have to leave evidence behind. It's tough to say. My gut instinct is that it doesn't automatically make you bad.

MiB was driven to do bad things because of his circumstances. He wanted more than anything to leave the island and he let 2000 years of isolation and futility fuck with his mind.

I think you're right that Mother just went nuts with time. She knew she needed to protect the island still. I don't think she ever wanted to leave. But I think she wanted it to be over. Whereas MiB didn't give a shit what happened, Mother still cared about the island and tried to make sure it'd be taken care of after she'd gone.
 
Why did flash sideways-Pierre Chang look the same age in 2004 as real world Pierre Chang in 1977?

Or am I being ridiculous by nitpicking the afterlife?
 
I assumed that he somehow saw the light of the island, not just the smoke, since he said, "I saw a very bright light. It was beautiful." It's possible that Smokey could emulate the light, or it's possible that what he saw wasn't at all Smokey.
Second time he meet Smokey he as willing to let it drag him underground. Remember, he even fought with Jack & Kate to let it take him.
I would hardly describe Smokey as beautiful so Ryan8Bit's right Locke saw the Light.
Sorry but what does your interpretation of Smokey have to do with what the character of Locke thought of it? :confused:
 
So, there was a Smoke Monster on the island before The Man in Black. This explains how Mother fucked up his camp and screwed up his Well so easily.

Yep, that was what I thought when watching it.......either she was Smokey or knew how to summon it.

How'd MiB stab and kill Mother if she was a smoke monster? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe a smokey can elect to be mortal.

Two choices:
If she was smokey, that power almost certainly left her when Jacob became the new gaurdian.
If she was not smokey, then she was just like Jacob and could be killed by the knife.
 
I think it's reasonable to assume she became a Smoke Monster the same way MiB did. She knew enough to tell Jacob that going down there was a fate worse than death. I can only assume she knew from experience.
If that were so, then stabbing her shouldn't have killed her.

We've seen SmokeLocke get stab & shot at but nothing hurts him. He didn't return to flesh & blood until the "heart" of the island was removed.
 
Looks like when there's a new protector, the old ones are mortal. Once Hurley became the sole protector, Jack as able to make Locke bleed--and Kate was able to kill Locke.
 
Looks like when there's a new protector, the old ones are mortal. Once Hurley became the sole protector, Jack as able to make Locke bleed--and Kate was able to kill Locke.
Both Jacob & Jack were stabbed and dying before they transfered the duty of protector.
 
My friends and I were discussing between commercials about some of these unanswered questions. At one point, one of us said, "Yeah, but they're irrelevant. It doesn't matter anymore."

While, I guess that's true to some extent, it just frustrates me that just about everything was left unanswered. Why present it all in the first place if you don't plan on providing any sort of explanation, vague or not?

Because they weren't pertinent to the overarching, main story of LOST.

Obviously, we want to know the answers. Obviously the questions and mysteries preceding these answers were important in their own way to the fabric and tapestry of the story, but not to the throughline of the story, which was about Jack, his daddy issues, and his final resolution of same.


Totally different subject, for everyone:

I also want to say that the burning desire to have every question answered, every mystery explained, having everything resolved and tied up nice and neat with a pretty bow on top is more and more becoming something that I find only arrogant, we-know-better-than-the-people-creating-art nerds seem to be whining about.

Personally, the LOST finale was perfect. The story is complete. And after Christian explained everything, who among us didn't stop for a moment and consider what our own collective flash sideways church scene would be like? All the important people from the most important time our own lives being there as we move on to the next stage. A fitting question to ponder for the series finale I think.

The writers didn't need to answer any of those questions to finish the story. Those questions weren't really important. The emotional payoff was satisfying enough that those other questions, now that it's all over, don't really matter anymore.
 
I also want to say that the burning desire to have every question answered, every mystery explained, having everything resolved and tied up nice and neat with a pretty bow on top is more and more becoming something that I find only arrogant, we-know-better-than-the-people-creating-art nerds seem to be whining about.
Project much?
 
I also want to say that the burning desire to have every question answered, every mystery explained, having everything resolved and tied up nice and neat with a pretty bow on top is more and more becoming something that I find only arrogant, we-know-better-than-the-people-creating-art nerds seem to be whining about.
Project much?
I think he's got a point considering they tolds us two years ago that not all the mystery would be answered flat out. It was even discussed in this forum when they said it. So I don't understand why when they did exactly what they said, folks are surprised by it and upset as if they never knew.
 
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