for a while I thought about deleting this icon
Because I had stopped watching LOST.
LOL.
Exactly what I was shouting at the end of last night's episode, He's Our You. OMGWTF SAYID SHOT BABY BEN NOOOOO.
But he won't be dead, because the writers aren't that stupid. A) I didn't see any blood from the wound. Dharma Kevlar? B) Always aim for the head; everywhere else is fair game for deus ex machina rescues, i.e. the Island resurrects Ben a la "Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" Locke or just super-heals him a la "The Man Behind the Curtain" Locke. C) Because Jin managed to radio Sawyer before Sayid judo-flipped him, Dharma folks will already be on their way and will find Ben in time for Jack and/or Juliet to use their sekrit doctor skillz to save his life. I HOPE IT'S JACK. THERE WILL BE JEARS OF INTERNAL CONFLICT A LA THE DILEMMA OF KILLING HITLER AS A CHILD. Sayid clearly didn't have that dilemma, because Sayid is... um. Awesome? It's hard to say that now. Because. Because. Ben. Not just the fact that it's Ben, but... a 12-year-old kid. That's cold, man.
Shit.
I wasn't aware of the existence of "jears" until recently, but it makes sense, because Jack+tears elicits the exact opposite of anything like sympathy, so they need a whole word of their own. Whereas Baby Ben+tears = d'aawwwww. It's easier to forgive you for being a manipulative, genocidal sociopath who may or may not have some sort of godlike omniscience. Sort of.
Okay, I have theories.
1 - This is the first moment that has been completely shocking within the context the time travel thing, because it breaks just about every cardinal rule of time travel. The only acceptable, non-paradoxical solution will be if Baby Ben doesn't die. When I reluctantly semi-predicted that Ben would be the major character death this season, I meant Ben the Elder -- probably at the hands of Desmond, if his covered-in-blood payphone call at the marina really was him coming fresh from the murder of Penny and/or Charlie Jr. (Dude, that would suck. I hate that Ben is being set up in major conflicts with other characters I love. Why can't he be in an intense personal conflict with Kate? And like, win? And kill her?) Luckily, I believe that Baby Ben won't die. In which case, the following...
2 - I am becoming more and more convinced that Ben has always remembered meeting our 815/316ers in the 70s. Within that context, many of his actions become more understandable, less random. His choice of Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley for kidnapping at the end of season 2 reflects the group of mysterious new people in '77 Dharmaville plus the security chief who was obviously in cahoots with them. As for the other people who made it to the 70s: Did Baby Ben ever even meet Daniel, who is now "gone"? The son of a janitor would probably not be making casual conversation with the babbling-crazy basket case of a physicist who is more likely than not currently working on the top-secret underground level of the Orchid station. Jin - maybe Elder Ben, when making his list, discounted Jin as insignificant to his plans. Re:season 2 finale/captivity of Jack, Kate, Sawyer: Ben needed Sawyer, whom he knew from his memory of the savvy, smart and charismatic Chief LeFleur, out of the wild and unable to be a security risk; he needed Kate, whom he remembered from '77 but now knew (from his & Ethan's observations of the 815ers) was involved with Sawyer & Jack and would make good leverage; and he needed Jack, whom he knew was a surgeon already, possibly because Jack saved his life when he was 12. (?!?!) So this:
"Do you believe in God? ... Two days after I found out I had a fatal tumor on my spine, a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky. If that isn't proof of God, I don't know what is."
... was just Ben fucking with Jack because he could. I am always wary of Ben's "personal revelations," especially if he volunteers them, because dude. Ben does not say ANYTHING that isn't calculated. This quote was calculated to make Jack feel somehow obligated by fate to do Ben's surgery, but also singled out for "specialness" by God himself. Just as "God doesn't know... God can't see this island any more than the rest of the world can... I came looking for you, John, you're special" from 'Henry' to Locke in season 2 was calculated to make Locke feel exactly the opposite of obligated by fate -- to make him feel like his actions on the island were somehow off the record, off God's record. To make Locke feel like his choices were his own to make (re: infighting with Jack & being forced to be co-leader, making compromises - plus Locke's growing resentment towards the "fate" that kept him pushing the button, finally exacerbated beyond the point of return by the Pearl station -- indeed, Ben/Henry directly caused Locke to stop pushing the button).
Back to time travel. If it's true, as has been endlessly speculated from the very beginning, that all of the people on Oceanic 815 were manipulated into being on that plane -- chosen, although more likely chosen by either Widmore or Ben, I'm thinking Ben, than by God -- then it is very likely that Ben was the one who nudged them there. Because Ben would have remembered some of them, and would have wanted them to get to the island somehow. But I'm not swearing by this, because there are the added contingencies of the fact that, unless Ben had also seen into the future as well as having his memories of the events of '77, he could not have known that the crash would happen at all -- since that was Desmond's fault alone; and also that Ben wouldn't have remembered anyone other than the people who were in the 70s. (Locke, Michael, Walt, Charlie, Claire, Shannon & Boone, etc)
3 - Here's my seriously nutso theory, inspired by other people who have said similar things: Elder Ben wanted Sayid to shoot his 12-year-old self. He knew it happened (after all, "whatever happened, happened"); there never was a timeline in which this didn't happen, just as there never was a timeline in which the Losties didn't go back in time and join Dharma. After pushing the donkey wheel, Elder Ben went straight to Tunisia, not passing Go, not collecting $200, to a hotel where he IMMEDIATELY found out that Sayid was off the island along with 5 others. He would have known that the island was skipping through time (maybe he slipped the wheel off its axis on purpose?). He would have then known that at some point in the future, the Oceanic 6 would HAVE to go back to the island, at least the ones who ended up in '77, in order to fulfill history. Therefore he knew he had to use whatever time he had off-island to condition Sayid into hating his living guts -- so he got Sayid to commit a lot of relatively pointless murders by possibly commissioning the murder of Nadia in the first place, then hired Ilana under false information (making her think she was working for the family of Peter Avellino) to nab Sayid and hustle him onto a flight for Guam. Voila: Sayid now wouldn't hesitate to kill Ben at any age, even as an innocent child. (Elder Ben probably also knew that his 12-year-old self, not being a master manipulator yet, would betray Elder Ben's cause by being all adorable and abused and crying. So he had to work to negate that potential sympathy. In fact, the incident of being shot by his Brand New Hostile BFF Sayid might be the very experience that instilled in Ben the decision never to trust anyone or relate on a personal level with anyone ever again. A decision which wavered in the cases of Juliet and Alex, but never completely failed.)
Random: So is it really a donkey wheel? Or is it a donkey wheel intended to be turned by polar bears i.e. the Tunisian polar bear skeleton. Logical progression: the wheel room is frozen. No person wants to turn the wheel and be exiled to Tunisia, so they need animals that thrive in the cold and are strong. Solution: polar bears! As a bonus, they get to keep the bears they don't send to Tunisia, cage them up at the Hydra and run acclimation experiments. Snap! Also, the fact that there's a polar bear skeleton in Tunisia suggests that the wheel has been turned before. Possibly in the very first trial run, after they had excavated the wheel (which apparently predates Dharma as it was already intact behind solid stone) but before they knew what it did. Discuss.
Is the wheel room frozen because it runs on cold fusion (the shiny, sparkly lights behind the wall) and needs to be superconductive? Is the "ancient magic" of the island really some kind of Egyptian superscience? Smokey always sounded awfully mechanical to me. *ratchetratchetratchet*
Now I'm just being silly. (Or am I?)
Anyway. I love this show. It makes my brain melt a little bit, but... I love this show.
And I'm starting to really like Sawyer. OMG. I hated his effing guts for two seasons, then the scene where he killed the real Sawyer in The Brig made me go all, O_O. And then he was useless for a while. But all of a sudden when he got woken back up to real life, he did a complete 180. His life's purpose was complete; he was no longer gratuitously antagonistic, he was no longer a total doucherocket, he was suddenly interesting and caring and seemed to see the other characters for who they really were for the first time. And he suddenly came into his leadership abilities, which required the removal of his homicidal baggage. Check. So... Sawyer is kind of awesome now. And do we have to call him James now since technically the "Sawyer" phase of his life ended when he killed Anthony Cooper? I would be down with that.
Sawyer + Juliet is actually kind of adorable and awesome, too. GTFO, KATE. G. T. F. O. Go hang out with your weepy, drunken ex who is now a janitor.
I've run out of ramble. Time to sleep and recharge, maybe come up with some more ramble later.
I kind of want to write the fic where Team Dharma Losties meet Baby Ben. Especially Juliet. AWKWARD. Um. 1000x more awful for her than discovering she was rocking and cooing at Baby Ethan. (Anyone else notice how all of a sudden she was like, "WHAT THE F-, oh, he's... lovely. Um... here... you can have him back now..." *has Baby Ethan cooties*
bedtime,
-rave
ETA: I got my yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do today!
LOL.
Exactly what I was shouting at the end of last night's episode, He's Our You. OMGWTF SAYID SHOT BABY BEN NOOOOO.
But he won't be dead, because the writers aren't that stupid. A) I didn't see any blood from the wound. Dharma Kevlar? B) Always aim for the head; everywhere else is fair game for deus ex machina rescues, i.e. the Island resurrects Ben a la "Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" Locke or just super-heals him a la "The Man Behind the Curtain" Locke. C) Because Jin managed to radio Sawyer before Sayid judo-flipped him, Dharma folks will already be on their way and will find Ben in time for Jack and/or Juliet to use their sekrit doctor skillz to save his life. I HOPE IT'S JACK. THERE WILL BE JEARS OF INTERNAL CONFLICT A LA THE DILEMMA OF KILLING HITLER AS A CHILD. Sayid clearly didn't have that dilemma, because Sayid is... um. Awesome? It's hard to say that now. Because. Because. Ben. Not just the fact that it's Ben, but... a 12-year-old kid. That's cold, man.
Shit.
I wasn't aware of the existence of "jears" until recently, but it makes sense, because Jack+tears elicits the exact opposite of anything like sympathy, so they need a whole word of their own. Whereas Baby Ben+tears = d'aawwwww. It's easier to forgive you for being a manipulative, genocidal sociopath who may or may not have some sort of godlike omniscience. Sort of.
Okay, I have theories.
1 - This is the first moment that has been completely shocking within the context the time travel thing, because it breaks just about every cardinal rule of time travel. The only acceptable, non-paradoxical solution will be if Baby Ben doesn't die. When I reluctantly semi-predicted that Ben would be the major character death this season, I meant Ben the Elder -- probably at the hands of Desmond, if his covered-in-blood payphone call at the marina really was him coming fresh from the murder of Penny and/or Charlie Jr. (Dude, that would suck. I hate that Ben is being set up in major conflicts with other characters I love. Why can't he be in an intense personal conflict with Kate? And like, win? And kill her?) Luckily, I believe that Baby Ben won't die. In which case, the following...
2 - I am becoming more and more convinced that Ben has always remembered meeting our 815/316ers in the 70s. Within that context, many of his actions become more understandable, less random. His choice of Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley for kidnapping at the end of season 2 reflects the group of mysterious new people in '77 Dharmaville plus the security chief who was obviously in cahoots with them. As for the other people who made it to the 70s: Did Baby Ben ever even meet Daniel, who is now "gone"? The son of a janitor would probably not be making casual conversation with the babbling-crazy basket case of a physicist who is more likely than not currently working on the top-secret underground level of the Orchid station. Jin - maybe Elder Ben, when making his list, discounted Jin as insignificant to his plans. Re:season 2 finale/captivity of Jack, Kate, Sawyer: Ben needed Sawyer, whom he knew from his memory of the savvy, smart and charismatic Chief LeFleur, out of the wild and unable to be a security risk; he needed Kate, whom he remembered from '77 but now knew (from his & Ethan's observations of the 815ers) was involved with Sawyer & Jack and would make good leverage; and he needed Jack, whom he knew was a surgeon already, possibly because Jack saved his life when he was 12. (?!?!) So this:
"Do you believe in God? ... Two days after I found out I had a fatal tumor on my spine, a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky. If that isn't proof of God, I don't know what is."
... was just Ben fucking with Jack because he could. I am always wary of Ben's "personal revelations," especially if he volunteers them, because dude. Ben does not say ANYTHING that isn't calculated. This quote was calculated to make Jack feel somehow obligated by fate to do Ben's surgery, but also singled out for "specialness" by God himself. Just as "God doesn't know... God can't see this island any more than the rest of the world can... I came looking for you, John, you're special" from 'Henry' to Locke in season 2 was calculated to make Locke feel exactly the opposite of obligated by fate -- to make him feel like his actions on the island were somehow off the record, off God's record. To make Locke feel like his choices were his own to make (re: infighting with Jack & being forced to be co-leader, making compromises - plus Locke's growing resentment towards the "fate" that kept him pushing the button, finally exacerbated beyond the point of return by the Pearl station -- indeed, Ben/Henry directly caused Locke to stop pushing the button).
Back to time travel. If it's true, as has been endlessly speculated from the very beginning, that all of the people on Oceanic 815 were manipulated into being on that plane -- chosen, although more likely chosen by either Widmore or Ben, I'm thinking Ben, than by God -- then it is very likely that Ben was the one who nudged them there. Because Ben would have remembered some of them, and would have wanted them to get to the island somehow. But I'm not swearing by this, because there are the added contingencies of the fact that, unless Ben had also seen into the future as well as having his memories of the events of '77, he could not have known that the crash would happen at all -- since that was Desmond's fault alone; and also that Ben wouldn't have remembered anyone other than the people who were in the 70s. (Locke, Michael, Walt, Charlie, Claire, Shannon & Boone, etc)
3 - Here's my seriously nutso theory, inspired by other people who have said similar things: Elder Ben wanted Sayid to shoot his 12-year-old self. He knew it happened (after all, "whatever happened, happened"); there never was a timeline in which this didn't happen, just as there never was a timeline in which the Losties didn't go back in time and join Dharma. After pushing the donkey wheel, Elder Ben went straight to Tunisia, not passing Go, not collecting $200, to a hotel where he IMMEDIATELY found out that Sayid was off the island along with 5 others. He would have known that the island was skipping through time (maybe he slipped the wheel off its axis on purpose?). He would have then known that at some point in the future, the Oceanic 6 would HAVE to go back to the island, at least the ones who ended up in '77, in order to fulfill history. Therefore he knew he had to use whatever time he had off-island to condition Sayid into hating his living guts -- so he got Sayid to commit a lot of relatively pointless murders by possibly commissioning the murder of Nadia in the first place, then hired Ilana under false information (making her think she was working for the family of Peter Avellino) to nab Sayid and hustle him onto a flight for Guam. Voila: Sayid now wouldn't hesitate to kill Ben at any age, even as an innocent child. (Elder Ben probably also knew that his 12-year-old self, not being a master manipulator yet, would betray Elder Ben's cause by being all adorable and abused and crying. So he had to work to negate that potential sympathy. In fact, the incident of being shot by his Brand New Hostile BFF Sayid might be the very experience that instilled in Ben the decision never to trust anyone or relate on a personal level with anyone ever again. A decision which wavered in the cases of Juliet and Alex, but never completely failed.)
Random: So is it really a donkey wheel? Or is it a donkey wheel intended to be turned by polar bears i.e. the Tunisian polar bear skeleton. Logical progression: the wheel room is frozen. No person wants to turn the wheel and be exiled to Tunisia, so they need animals that thrive in the cold and are strong. Solution: polar bears! As a bonus, they get to keep the bears they don't send to Tunisia, cage them up at the Hydra and run acclimation experiments. Snap! Also, the fact that there's a polar bear skeleton in Tunisia suggests that the wheel has been turned before. Possibly in the very first trial run, after they had excavated the wheel (which apparently predates Dharma as it was already intact behind solid stone) but before they knew what it did. Discuss.
Is the wheel room frozen because it runs on cold fusion (the shiny, sparkly lights behind the wall) and needs to be superconductive? Is the "ancient magic" of the island really some kind of Egyptian superscience? Smokey always sounded awfully mechanical to me. *ratchetratchetratchet*
Now I'm just being silly. (Or am I?)
Anyway. I love this show. It makes my brain melt a little bit, but... I love this show.
And I'm starting to really like Sawyer. OMG. I hated his effing guts for two seasons, then the scene where he killed the real Sawyer in The Brig made me go all, O_O. And then he was useless for a while. But all of a sudden when he got woken back up to real life, he did a complete 180. His life's purpose was complete; he was no longer gratuitously antagonistic, he was no longer a total doucherocket, he was suddenly interesting and caring and seemed to see the other characters for who they really were for the first time. And he suddenly came into his leadership abilities, which required the removal of his homicidal baggage. Check. So... Sawyer is kind of awesome now. And do we have to call him James now since technically the "Sawyer" phase of his life ended when he killed Anthony Cooper? I would be down with that.
Sawyer + Juliet is actually kind of adorable and awesome, too. GTFO, KATE. G. T. F. O. Go hang out with your weepy, drunken ex who is now a janitor.
I've run out of ramble. Time to sleep and recharge, maybe come up with some more ramble later.
I kind of want to write the fic where Team Dharma Losties meet Baby Ben. Especially Juliet. AWKWARD. Um. 1000x more awful for her than discovering she was rocking and cooing at Baby Ethan. (Anyone else notice how all of a sudden she was like, "WHAT THE F-, oh, he's... lovely. Um... here... you can have him back now..." *has Baby Ethan cooties*
bedtime,
-rave
ETA: I got my yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do today!