"When you talk it's like little people throwing up in my head!" - Couple's Therapist from College Humor
...Wow that quote made no sense. But then that is how I feel about the people responsible for this subject.
So yeah, there is a law now in Arizona that says if you look like an illegal immigrant you can be taken aside by the police, you will be asked for documents and papers that say you are an American right than and there, and if you don't have them you will be arrested. Yet this isn't racial profiling, according to bill signer and supporter Governor Jan Brewer?
Almost no one has had a positive reaction to this. Why? Because it doesn't make any sense! This bill has as many holes as the Star Wars prequels and is about as useful. Yeah I don't know how any sane and supposedly un-prejudiced person could like this bill. It is essentially giving people a right to descriminate. Do you have any idea how many racists are going to take advantage of this?
911 OPERATOR: 911 Emergency...
REDNECK: Uh, yes'm, I saw me some beaners in line at the Target. Looked to be a whole pack of em, brown skin, funny little noses and all. They's probably fence jumpers, you know. Tell ya what ya oughta do ya oughta get some riot gear down here with some of that bat-ons! Oomkay, some bat-ons and teesers or tasers or whatever ya call em, get those down here and send them back to whatever little desert hut they came from.
Now in a world we should be living in, this is what we would hear next:
911 OPERATOR: (Click, dial tone)......
REDNECK: Hehlo? I say, hehlo? Do you read, this is Cletus Fairfax.........Hehlo?
But no, in the real world this is what we will hear down in Arizona:
911 OPERATOR: Thank you, sir. Remain calm, we will have a squad car down there right away.
REDNECK: Yes, uh, thank ya, thank ya, ma'am. Just doin' my services to this fine continent of these United States of Amurica.
Who actually carries around with them any and every written form that says they are an American citizen. I don't, better stay out of Arizona. Imagine how the police must feel about this too. Imagine how awkward and shameful that would be to walk up to people who don't look American and pester them about their papers. Nobody likes this. The President doesn't like it. The people don't like it. Some upstanding Mexican-Americans from Arizona certainly don't like it. The ironic thing is, these Mexican folks they are so desperately trying to weed out of this country were here a long time before we were.
I especially loved it when Governor Brewer was taking questions around the time of her signing the bill. While she stuck to her guns and defended it, people asked some pretty logical questions: "What does an illegal immigrant look like?" To which she had no answer. Even though this is all clear racial profiling, she denies it. It's like saying this horse isn't white, it's blank. It makes no sense. But I suppose it doesn't have to. At the end of the day, the issue is not legality. The issue is we want brown people out of this country. Politicians can use whatever bills or laws they like, but they are no different from the assholes in my school who say "build a wall around Mexico!" They are racists who don't like the label "racist." There is another example of hypocrisy, or maybe just plain denial. I don't know, this whole thing is stupid. Politics are stupid, Jan Bitcher is stupid, this post is stupid. No matter what we do, someone will be feeding the fire on one side or the other. But still, I suppose it matters which side you choose. There are times though, when I wish I could be the wind that blows it away.
This has been a shout out to the bullshit from Your Modest Guru. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Lost: Top Ten Villains
One thing Lost does not fail on is villains. I don't know how, but there has not been a Lost villain I didn't love to hate. So I will be giving my top ten villains of Lost and go into why they were so villainous. Here we go.
10. Stuart Radzinsky
"You don't have the stomach for what happens next."
We first heard of Radzinsky in season 2 as being the first man down in the Swan Hatch. You can imagine our surprise when he delivered a strange new turn as the secondary villain of season 5. Radzinsky first appears to be a bitchy Dharma scientist until "a hostile" enters his lair and all of a sudden his mind shifts to Red Dawn. He goes from paranoid to obsessive to violent to sociopathic in just a few days. I hated him because he was a control freak, because he was always complaining, because he was so compulsive. He was just an overly frustrating person who made a good antagonist. Making Radzinsky the bad guy was a good move. Makes me all the more glad that he ended up being that bloodstain on the Hatch ceiling.
9. Tom Friendly
"If you cross this line, we are gonna go from misunderstanding to...something else."
Tom was pretty much the first glimpse of leadership we saw among The Others. Though he was just a flunky, to us he first appeared to be a very intimidating and fearsome villain. From the moment he takes Walt to the time he warns Jack to back off, Tom makes his point very well. The funny thing is, Tom is eventually revealed to be a pretty nonviolent person. He is sickened by blood, too sensitive for most extreme violence, frightened and taken aback very easily, and, like most of The Others, seems like a nice guy for most of the time. He's also gay, which was a nice surprise. Tom Friendly, a man who really shouldn't have crossed a guy named Sawyer.
8. Edward Mars
"This oughta be good."
Mars is the first villain of the show. He is the arrogant US Marshall who has spent years hunting and has now finally captured Kate at the beginning of the series. In the present he is very feeble, having been mortally wounded after the plane crash. In flashbacks though, he is a total douchebag who takes pleasure in Kate's suffering, especially when he knows why she did what she did. Even while near death on the Island he's a jerk, mocking Jack about already having connected with Kate. Another thing about Mars is he seems to be very hard to kill. This may be the Island working it's magic, but I doubt it would work on a guy like him. First his skull is busted in by a briefcase during the turbulence, then he gets a big piece of shrapenel jammed in his gut, lies in suffering for a few days, Sawyer tries to put him out of his misery with a bullet to the heart, and then Jack finally kills him out of mercy. I was not sad to see Mars go at all, and I was glad he was Jack's first kill.
7. Ethan Rom
"And Charlie...I'll kill you last."
The first Other we see, the one who made us realize that our heroes were not alone on the Island. At Ben's request, Ethan slips into the survivors camp on the day of the crash posing as another person on the plane. He makes friendly banter with a few people like Jack, Hurley, and Nikki and Paulo. He also begins hunting boar with Locke. This gains him some respect from the survivors. It is not until Hurley finds out he wasn't on the plane and he kidnaps Claire and Charlie that we realize who he is. When Jack comes after him, Ethan takes the good doctor down and then hangs Charlie as a warning for him to stop. Later when Claire makes her way back to the camp, Ethan attacks Jin and Charlie and threatens to kill a person each day Claire isn't back. He makes good on his promise, killing Scott...or Steve. Eventually though he is ambushed by a group of castaways and given a brutal revenge beating from Jack. Just as we are about to get answers, Charlie shows up and unloads a pistol into his chest. This is not quite the end of Ethan as he has appeared in just about every season since then, in flashbacks or otherwise. We see Ethan as the friendly guy he was before kidnapping Claire and wondered what drove him to do the things he did. In one of the Missing Pieces episodes, it is revealed that Ethan helped Jack look for medical supplies on one of the first days. Ethan shared Jack's worry for Claire, but when Jack mentioned that if he needed help in a delivery would Ethan volunteer, Ethan was unsettled. He told Jack sadly that his wife and kid died in labor. This gave a lot more depth to his character and motivation. I don't really hate Ethan that much anymore.
6. Charles Widmore
"It's sad, really, how little you know."
Widmore was a very surprising character. I mean, he was always a villain, but he became a more intriguing villain as the series progressed. We first met in the Season 2 finale, where he appears to be the upperclass, douchebag father of Desmond's love Penny. He fills that role for the next few times we see him, doing everything in his power to keep his daughter and Desmond apart. Okay so we hate him right off the bat. Then it turns out that the freighter that has come to the Island to capture Ben and supposedly kill everyone else was sent by Widmore himself. Ben first says Widmore wanted to exploit the Island for its unique properties. And then it turns out that Widmore was one of The Others, their former leader in fact. He's always been a pretty cold and ruthless guy: he was quite the sadist as a kid, threatening to cut off time traveling Juliet's arm to make a point and snapping his own friend's neck to protect his people. From the moment we know his involvment with the Island, he becomes one of the show's most sinister characters. As of late he seems to have become more of an anti-hero as his mission now seems to be stopping The Man in Black. Also I have more sympathy for him now after a moment where he reflected on everything he has sacrificed: His son Daniel Faraday was killed, his daughter Penny hates him, his grandson Charlie has never met him. Oh and his relationship with his ex-Other-wife is mercenary more than anything. Still I don't fully trust Widmore. I don't completely trust any of the contenders for whatever ultimate prize there is in the war for The Island.
5. Mikhail Bakunin
"Why are we continuing with this little game, when we all know it has gone to the next stage."
Mikhail Bakunin. What can I say? He's just a cool villain. He's a guy I could see James Bond fighting. A smooth and dark voice, that eye patch, and his near invincibility. Seriously, Mikhail is a hard guy to kill. He has his brain hemorraged when he is thrown through the sonic fence by Locke; he is beaten half to death again by Locke (hmm, maybe he was still pissed about the Cold War); Desmond shoots him in the chest with a speargun; he finally goes down by suicide when he pulls the pin on his grenade to kill Charlie. I can't really say much, except that he is just a very dangerous villain and no doubt one of the top Others under Ben's command. He is also quite unlucky. Even in the alternate reality where he is a successful thug with two eyes, he gets shot and killed by Jin, losing the eye in the process. Fate course corrects again!
4. Martin Keamy
"I've never been one for talk."
Keamy is slime, pure and simple. Whereas Mikhail is a Bond villain, Keamy I could see on 24. Essentially, Martin Keamy has his hands in all sorts of vices, he's a gangster, an assassin, and a hardcore mercenary. Keamy is one of the least moral villains on Lost, as he doesn't mind doing anything to get the job done i.e. killing several innocent bystanders including a sixteen year old girl...oh yeah, and Karl. While being a diabolically vicious bastard, Keamy and his group of mercs also made way for huge spectacles of Island action that was particularly delightful, including one badass fight with our resident red beret Sayid. Even in death he managed to be a douche, because after Ben kills him a "dead man's trigger" activates a boatload of C4 on the freighter and kills almost everybody on board. Still, for some reason I think he was an even more evil person in the sideways world where he was an LA gangster. Just a bit more nefarious I suppose. Either way, or dimension, Keamy is a bastard.
3. Locke's Father
"A little hot for heaven, don't you think."
I won't call him Anthony Cooper because he mentioned that that was one of his aliases to Sawyer. Locke's Father, honestly, may be the most vile villain I've seen on the show. He's not a particularly dangerous man, but he's a lifelong confidence man and knows how to manipulate. He has no doubt ruined countless lives over the years, the two most notable being that of John Locke, his own son, and James Ford, the son of victims who took his alias "Mr. Sawyer." He not only ruined John's life once, but three times: stole his kidney, ruined the relationship with the woman he loved, and then paralyzed him by pushing him out an eight story window. In a con he "pulled half a dozen times" when he was younger in which he seduced an Alabama housewife and stole her and husband's savings, Locke's Father caused the death of the Ford parents, leaving son James to seek revenge. Tell me you don't hate him, I dare you. The thing I hate about him is what a smug son of a bitch he is. Even when he is captured by The Others and his life is very in danger by his son or Sawyer, men who have every right and reason to kill him, he still keeps that cocky smile and taunts them endlessly. I was clapping when Sawyer choked the life out of this monster.
2. Benjamin Linus
"I was one of the few smart enough to make sure I didn't end up in that ditch. Which makes me considerably smarter than you..."
The first true archenemy on Lost. Ben pulled a very convincing facade as stranded millionaire Henry Gale when he first met the castaways (convincing for me, not for them). Eventually he was found out and tried to play himself off as a mere underling for as long as possible until manipulated Michael sprung him loose and he resumed leadership of The Others. Episode after episode of season 3, Ben did everything he could to be the most intimidating character on the show. He became the bad guy you love to hate. He was a manipulative, arrogant, and brutal mastermind but he was cool about it. He is also very multi-dimensional. There comes a point where you can sympathize and pity him as much as you can hate him. He is also pretty easy to read, like when he has a plan and when he has no idea what the hell he is going to do.
1. The Man in Black
"It's kill or be killed, and I don't wanna be killed."
He has always been watching and waiting. He has planned for a very long time. And by the end of Season 5, when he finally let the smoke settle and came out from the trees, we knew one thing. He's coming. And, as it would seem, there is not a thing anyone can do to stop him. The Man in Black, otherwise known as The Monster, could be considered the first villain of Lost. He makes his presence known in the very first episode and was pretty blunt regarding his intentions for the castways. Just ask Oceanic pilot Seth Norris, Mr. Eko, Montand, Shannon from Boone's weird hallucination, Nikki, and Paulo inadvertantly (though honestly, I think that was the one time we appreciated him). But what served as an intimidating plot device and interesting use of CGI actually had an arc all of his own. After killing his "mother", The Man in Black is thrown into the source of the Island's energy by his goody two shoes brother Jacob. After this his spirit is ripped from his body and turned into a dark cloud of anger and EVIL!!! All he wants from then on is to leave the Island more than ever, and will kill anyone who gets in his way, except those protected by The Rules everyone fails to explain...Actually he kills them too. Everyone was kind of on the fence about whether he was the good one and Jacob bad, but I never trusted him. There was a moment when he simply asked Kate to follow him to the beach: he held out his hand to help her stand, she looked at him and he had this awkward smile on his face, like he was trying to hide what he really was. Sure he already killed some forty people by then, but that moment kind of set me off completely. He is also pretty badass. I mean, no other villain on Lost has stood against a mortar explosion without even batting an eye, or calmly strolling into a hail of gunfire. After he initiates plan "kill everyone, leave Island" he shows himself to be the most menacing villain the show has ever presented. He especially pissed me off when he took the form of deceased John Locke. Oh yeah and that time he killed three, let me repeat that, THREE main characters: Sayid, Sun, and Jin. After that the bastard was in the cross hairs of every lover of Lost. It came down to this literal chain smoking bastard going after the source of the Island in a last effort to destroy the Island and everyone on it. The variable however was Jack Shepherd, the recently elected and instantly resigned Jacob Replacement. In the end both of their plans worked: The Man in Black managed to enable the Island's slow destruction and Jack was able to render him human and thus killable. This duel between the man of science and the man of evil who looked like the man of faith concluded on the cliffs of the Island's coast. Hero and villain charged at one another and instigated probably one of the coolest fights on Lost. Just when he has the upperhand on the ex-doctor/ex-deity, Smokie takes a round to the spine from Kate. Though defeated, and almost embarrassed at defeat, he still tries to make a quick villain quip, but Jack has had enough and kicks him over the cliff where he dies on the rocks below. He ended his arc nearly destroying the Island and killing the hero who saved it and ended his terror. He had the been source of much darkness, perhaps all of the darkness on the Island. Every event that took place led our heroes into his hand, but this proposed superhuman creature was not all knowing and was overconfident and in the end that combination was what destroyed him. After this nameless monster was killed, the scales may have finally and eternally tilted back to the light.
And those were my top ten Lost villains. They were some pretty evil sons of bitches, but they made the show intense(er) and for that we could thank them. What we couldn't thank them for is the number of people they killed. Seriously, these guys were douches. Thanks for reading.
10. Stuart Radzinsky
"You don't have the stomach for what happens next."
We first heard of Radzinsky in season 2 as being the first man down in the Swan Hatch. You can imagine our surprise when he delivered a strange new turn as the secondary villain of season 5. Radzinsky first appears to be a bitchy Dharma scientist until "a hostile" enters his lair and all of a sudden his mind shifts to Red Dawn. He goes from paranoid to obsessive to violent to sociopathic in just a few days. I hated him because he was a control freak, because he was always complaining, because he was so compulsive. He was just an overly frustrating person who made a good antagonist. Making Radzinsky the bad guy was a good move. Makes me all the more glad that he ended up being that bloodstain on the Hatch ceiling.
9. Tom Friendly
"If you cross this line, we are gonna go from misunderstanding to...something else."
Tom was pretty much the first glimpse of leadership we saw among The Others. Though he was just a flunky, to us he first appeared to be a very intimidating and fearsome villain. From the moment he takes Walt to the time he warns Jack to back off, Tom makes his point very well. The funny thing is, Tom is eventually revealed to be a pretty nonviolent person. He is sickened by blood, too sensitive for most extreme violence, frightened and taken aback very easily, and, like most of The Others, seems like a nice guy for most of the time. He's also gay, which was a nice surprise. Tom Friendly, a man who really shouldn't have crossed a guy named Sawyer.
8. Edward Mars
"This oughta be good."
Mars is the first villain of the show. He is the arrogant US Marshall who has spent years hunting and has now finally captured Kate at the beginning of the series. In the present he is very feeble, having been mortally wounded after the plane crash. In flashbacks though, he is a total douchebag who takes pleasure in Kate's suffering, especially when he knows why she did what she did. Even while near death on the Island he's a jerk, mocking Jack about already having connected with Kate. Another thing about Mars is he seems to be very hard to kill. This may be the Island working it's magic, but I doubt it would work on a guy like him. First his skull is busted in by a briefcase during the turbulence, then he gets a big piece of shrapenel jammed in his gut, lies in suffering for a few days, Sawyer tries to put him out of his misery with a bullet to the heart, and then Jack finally kills him out of mercy. I was not sad to see Mars go at all, and I was glad he was Jack's first kill.
7. Ethan Rom
"And Charlie...I'll kill you last."
The first Other we see, the one who made us realize that our heroes were not alone on the Island. At Ben's request, Ethan slips into the survivors camp on the day of the crash posing as another person on the plane. He makes friendly banter with a few people like Jack, Hurley, and Nikki and Paulo. He also begins hunting boar with Locke. This gains him some respect from the survivors. It is not until Hurley finds out he wasn't on the plane and he kidnaps Claire and Charlie that we realize who he is. When Jack comes after him, Ethan takes the good doctor down and then hangs Charlie as a warning for him to stop. Later when Claire makes her way back to the camp, Ethan attacks Jin and Charlie and threatens to kill a person each day Claire isn't back. He makes good on his promise, killing Scott...or Steve. Eventually though he is ambushed by a group of castaways and given a brutal revenge beating from Jack. Just as we are about to get answers, Charlie shows up and unloads a pistol into his chest. This is not quite the end of Ethan as he has appeared in just about every season since then, in flashbacks or otherwise. We see Ethan as the friendly guy he was before kidnapping Claire and wondered what drove him to do the things he did. In one of the Missing Pieces episodes, it is revealed that Ethan helped Jack look for medical supplies on one of the first days. Ethan shared Jack's worry for Claire, but when Jack mentioned that if he needed help in a delivery would Ethan volunteer, Ethan was unsettled. He told Jack sadly that his wife and kid died in labor. This gave a lot more depth to his character and motivation. I don't really hate Ethan that much anymore.
6. Charles Widmore
"It's sad, really, how little you know."
Widmore was a very surprising character. I mean, he was always a villain, but he became a more intriguing villain as the series progressed. We first met in the Season 2 finale, where he appears to be the upperclass, douchebag father of Desmond's love Penny. He fills that role for the next few times we see him, doing everything in his power to keep his daughter and Desmond apart. Okay so we hate him right off the bat. Then it turns out that the freighter that has come to the Island to capture Ben and supposedly kill everyone else was sent by Widmore himself. Ben first says Widmore wanted to exploit the Island for its unique properties. And then it turns out that Widmore was one of The Others, their former leader in fact. He's always been a pretty cold and ruthless guy: he was quite the sadist as a kid, threatening to cut off time traveling Juliet's arm to make a point and snapping his own friend's neck to protect his people. From the moment we know his involvment with the Island, he becomes one of the show's most sinister characters. As of late he seems to have become more of an anti-hero as his mission now seems to be stopping The Man in Black. Also I have more sympathy for him now after a moment where he reflected on everything he has sacrificed: His son Daniel Faraday was killed, his daughter Penny hates him, his grandson Charlie has never met him. Oh and his relationship with his ex-Other-wife is mercenary more than anything. Still I don't fully trust Widmore. I don't completely trust any of the contenders for whatever ultimate prize there is in the war for The Island.
5. Mikhail Bakunin
"Why are we continuing with this little game, when we all know it has gone to the next stage."
Mikhail Bakunin. What can I say? He's just a cool villain. He's a guy I could see James Bond fighting. A smooth and dark voice, that eye patch, and his near invincibility. Seriously, Mikhail is a hard guy to kill. He has his brain hemorraged when he is thrown through the sonic fence by Locke; he is beaten half to death again by Locke (hmm, maybe he was still pissed about the Cold War); Desmond shoots him in the chest with a speargun; he finally goes down by suicide when he pulls the pin on his grenade to kill Charlie. I can't really say much, except that he is just a very dangerous villain and no doubt one of the top Others under Ben's command. He is also quite unlucky. Even in the alternate reality where he is a successful thug with two eyes, he gets shot and killed by Jin, losing the eye in the process. Fate course corrects again!
4. Martin Keamy
"I've never been one for talk."
Keamy is slime, pure and simple. Whereas Mikhail is a Bond villain, Keamy I could see on 24. Essentially, Martin Keamy has his hands in all sorts of vices, he's a gangster, an assassin, and a hardcore mercenary. Keamy is one of the least moral villains on Lost, as he doesn't mind doing anything to get the job done i.e. killing several innocent bystanders including a sixteen year old girl...oh yeah, and Karl. While being a diabolically vicious bastard, Keamy and his group of mercs also made way for huge spectacles of Island action that was particularly delightful, including one badass fight with our resident red beret Sayid. Even in death he managed to be a douche, because after Ben kills him a "dead man's trigger" activates a boatload of C4 on the freighter and kills almost everybody on board. Still, for some reason I think he was an even more evil person in the sideways world where he was an LA gangster. Just a bit more nefarious I suppose. Either way, or dimension, Keamy is a bastard.
3. Locke's Father
"A little hot for heaven, don't you think."
I won't call him Anthony Cooper because he mentioned that that was one of his aliases to Sawyer. Locke's Father, honestly, may be the most vile villain I've seen on the show. He's not a particularly dangerous man, but he's a lifelong confidence man and knows how to manipulate. He has no doubt ruined countless lives over the years, the two most notable being that of John Locke, his own son, and James Ford, the son of victims who took his alias "Mr. Sawyer." He not only ruined John's life once, but three times: stole his kidney, ruined the relationship with the woman he loved, and then paralyzed him by pushing him out an eight story window. In a con he "pulled half a dozen times" when he was younger in which he seduced an Alabama housewife and stole her and husband's savings, Locke's Father caused the death of the Ford parents, leaving son James to seek revenge. Tell me you don't hate him, I dare you. The thing I hate about him is what a smug son of a bitch he is. Even when he is captured by The Others and his life is very in danger by his son or Sawyer, men who have every right and reason to kill him, he still keeps that cocky smile and taunts them endlessly. I was clapping when Sawyer choked the life out of this monster.
2. Benjamin Linus
"I was one of the few smart enough to make sure I didn't end up in that ditch. Which makes me considerably smarter than you..."
The first true archenemy on Lost. Ben pulled a very convincing facade as stranded millionaire Henry Gale when he first met the castaways (convincing for me, not for them). Eventually he was found out and tried to play himself off as a mere underling for as long as possible until manipulated Michael sprung him loose and he resumed leadership of The Others. Episode after episode of season 3, Ben did everything he could to be the most intimidating character on the show. He became the bad guy you love to hate. He was a manipulative, arrogant, and brutal mastermind but he was cool about it. He is also very multi-dimensional. There comes a point where you can sympathize and pity him as much as you can hate him. He is also pretty easy to read, like when he has a plan and when he has no idea what the hell he is going to do.
1. The Man in Black
"It's kill or be killed, and I don't wanna be killed."
He has always been watching and waiting. He has planned for a very long time. And by the end of Season 5, when he finally let the smoke settle and came out from the trees, we knew one thing. He's coming. And, as it would seem, there is not a thing anyone can do to stop him. The Man in Black, otherwise known as The Monster, could be considered the first villain of Lost. He makes his presence known in the very first episode and was pretty blunt regarding his intentions for the castways. Just ask Oceanic pilot Seth Norris, Mr. Eko, Montand, Shannon from Boone's weird hallucination, Nikki, and Paulo inadvertantly (though honestly, I think that was the one time we appreciated him). But what served as an intimidating plot device and interesting use of CGI actually had an arc all of his own. After killing his "mother", The Man in Black is thrown into the source of the Island's energy by his goody two shoes brother Jacob. After this his spirit is ripped from his body and turned into a dark cloud of anger and EVIL!!! All he wants from then on is to leave the Island more than ever, and will kill anyone who gets in his way, except those protected by The Rules everyone fails to explain...Actually he kills them too. Everyone was kind of on the fence about whether he was the good one and Jacob bad, but I never trusted him. There was a moment when he simply asked Kate to follow him to the beach: he held out his hand to help her stand, she looked at him and he had this awkward smile on his face, like he was trying to hide what he really was. Sure he already killed some forty people by then, but that moment kind of set me off completely. He is also pretty badass. I mean, no other villain on Lost has stood against a mortar explosion without even batting an eye, or calmly strolling into a hail of gunfire. After he initiates plan "kill everyone, leave Island" he shows himself to be the most menacing villain the show has ever presented. He especially pissed me off when he took the form of deceased John Locke. Oh yeah and that time he killed three, let me repeat that, THREE main characters: Sayid, Sun, and Jin. After that the bastard was in the cross hairs of every lover of Lost. It came down to this literal chain smoking bastard going after the source of the Island in a last effort to destroy the Island and everyone on it. The variable however was Jack Shepherd, the recently elected and instantly resigned Jacob Replacement. In the end both of their plans worked: The Man in Black managed to enable the Island's slow destruction and Jack was able to render him human and thus killable. This duel between the man of science and the man of evil who looked like the man of faith concluded on the cliffs of the Island's coast. Hero and villain charged at one another and instigated probably one of the coolest fights on Lost. Just when he has the upperhand on the ex-doctor/ex-deity, Smokie takes a round to the spine from Kate. Though defeated, and almost embarrassed at defeat, he still tries to make a quick villain quip, but Jack has had enough and kicks him over the cliff where he dies on the rocks below. He ended his arc nearly destroying the Island and killing the hero who saved it and ended his terror. He had the been source of much darkness, perhaps all of the darkness on the Island. Every event that took place led our heroes into his hand, but this proposed superhuman creature was not all knowing and was overconfident and in the end that combination was what destroyed him. After this nameless monster was killed, the scales may have finally and eternally tilted back to the light.
And those were my top ten Lost villains. They were some pretty evil sons of bitches, but they made the show intense(er) and for that we could thank them. What we couldn't thank them for is the number of people they killed. Seriously, these guys were douches. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Summing Up Trailers Part 2
I am back again to give you my opinion on the trailers for the movies that are coming our way. So dig it.
I reviewed the first trailer, I know, but there has been a wider scale of promotion for the Iron Man sequel since that time. I remember the time when Iron Man 2's trailer just came out, it was around the time Avatar was about to be released. And I found people actually saying Iron Man 2 looked better than Avatar. After I was restrained and the world started making sense again, I found the whole new promotion for Iron Man 2. I come back to the same conclusion. We got villains played by Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell. Perfect. Don Cheadle replacing Terrance Howard as Jimmy Rhodes/War Machine. I'll miss Howard, but Cheadle is still awesome. Gweneth Paltrow and Scarlett Johannson as the ace vixens of the show. They are both superb actresses, and plus Gweneth Paltrow has always been beautiful and how could I pass up Scarlett Johannson as the black leather clad Black Widow. I can't. And of course we get awesome action and one-liners delivered by Robert Downey, Jr. in his destiny role as Iron Man. It looks really good, even better than the first.
THE A TEAM TRAILER 2:
Okay while looking better than the first trailer, I still can't help but think this is going to be lame. I mean sure if we suspend our beliefs and remember the good old days of the original A Team (not that I remember any) this movie could be really good. I'd see it for the actors. I mean sure Bradley Cooper is pretty good, all I know about Rampage Jackson is that he was on UFC or something, but it's got Liam Neeson (Schindler!!!) and Sharlto Copley (you know the badass office worker turned alien from District 9). I am kind of surprised it is being directed by Joe Carnahan, director of the extremely awesome movies Smokin' Aces and Narc. Maybe it could be okay. Not something I'd see in theatres, but okay nonetheless.
THE LOSERS TRAILER:
Why is this called The Losers? In the trailer they seem to be winning and leading very badass lives. Maybe they all die at the end, I don't know. Essentially this looks like a better version of The A Team movie coming out. It's got just as many good actors in it and the action looks just as superb. Okay who do we got: Jefferey Dean Morgan from Supernatural and Watchmen; Chris Evans, that decent actor who is starring in everything; Jason Patric, who might need a better agent but still hey Jason Patric; Zoe Saldana...well what more can I say. I mean I'm at least going to watch some of this movie if she is gonna be in it. One thing I like better than a gorgeous actress, is a gorgeous actress who can act and look good with a gun. Oh will the testosterone ever cease!? No. Also another one I don't want to see in theatres, but it looks pretty good. Though the fact that Hollywood is raiding every comic book store in America for graphic novel stories is kind of tedious.
THE EXPENDABLES TRAILER:
And finally the third A Team lookalike and ironically the one I want to see. Why? Because of the cast. Writing, directing, and starring is Sylvester Stallone. Sly Stallone is the leader of a league of the world's greatest mercenaries. Who are they? Jason Stathem, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, and Randy Couture. They are hired to take down a small army of bad guys led by bigger bad guys. Who are they? Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. They are hired by some shady figures. Who are they? Bruce Willis and...wait for it...ARNOLD SCHWARZENNEGAR!!! It must be 4/20 'cause I think I'm high!!! I know this may only be a cameo but so long has it been that I've seen Arnold on the screen. I watched this trailer and shouted out "YESSS!!!" The Expendables is essentially going to be a big action extravaganza in which the biggest badassess ever to appear on screen (with the exception of Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, Jackie Chan, Samuel L. Jackson, and the king himself Clint Eastwood) duke it out in a flurry of bullets and explosions. I don't care what it takes, this is a theatre movie. My inner child cries out for The Expendables, it really does.
PREDATORS TRAILER:
Finally, Predators get back to the jungle where they are killing people of my species, who I actually have sympathy for, instead of the xenomorphs from Alien. Alright I feel about Predators the same way I feel about The Expendables. But instead of just throwing a bunch of badasses into a movie and have them fight each other, it has them work together to fight the species that has badassary not only in their culture, but in their blood. The story is, a bunch of Earth's most lethal people are abducted and brought to an alien jungle planet. The only thing there it seems besides them are the Predators. Need I remind you that just one of these things killed several dozen commandos and almost killed the Govenator himself back in the '80s. Rounding out the cast is Adrien Brody as an American mercenary, Alice Braga as a Black Ops sniper, Laurence Fishburne as a veteran soldier, Danny Trejo as a drug trafficer, Topher Grace as a serial killer (seriously?), and some other guys I don't know as Russian and African mercs, a yakuza assassin, and a death row inmate. Do they stand a chance? Probably not, but it'll be fun seeing them go at it. This movie looks really good, even scary. I'd see it in theatres. Plus, you just gotta love a Predator. They may be some ugly motherfuckers but they are dedicated.
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET TRAILER 2:
It still looks like it will be pretty good. I mean sure they will do what every other remake of a horror movie these days does and rehash the same story with a few tweaks here and there. But I think this will be more along the lines of how The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was, where we get whole new elements and possibly even story and both are even better. Still it looks like the driving force behind this movie is Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Kruger. I swear to god his deep voice is due to the fact that his larynx came from that of the Grim Reaper. Sure he still sounds like Rorschach from Watchmen, but Rorschach from Watchmen was scary as hell and he was the good guy. It could be fun, but, knowing my disappointments with the last few remakes, I will wait for DVD.
PEACOCK TRAILER:
Now this looks bizarre. But my kind of bizarre. I read about this before seeing the trailer, and it honestly sounded like it was going to be a comedy. The story is about a secretive accountant played by Cillian Murphy (you know, Scarecrow from Batman Begins) who dons an alternate identity in the privacy of his home. While out and about he is the quiet husband nobody has a problem with. While at home he is a homemaker wife who takes care of the house and never sees anybody. His sex life must be far less complicated than most marriages. But a train comes crashing into his yard and everyone sees him as her. They assume he is just the wife he never told anyone about. But now everything's gone out of control as Murphy's tries to keep up appearances as both husband and wife, even while the wife personality is growing unstable. Rounding out the cast is Ellen Page, Susan Sarandon, Josh Lucas, Keith Carradine, and Bill Pullman. Awesome. It looks like it will be a really smart and intense movie. I'd definitely see it.
EAT PRAY LOVE TRAILER:
Who doesn't want to see a movie where Julia Roberts seeks out her independance by going traveling across the world by herself and finding peace? Maybe most of the male audience but that's beside the point. The movie looks decent, but the trailer doesn't give much to be excited about other than Julia Roberts, who has not acted in too many movies lately. It's not that she's a bad actress, she's a great actress, but just not in as high of demand as she was in the '90s. Not a theatre movie for me, but I might watch it some other time. It might be up to you girls to watch Eat Pray Love.
KNIGHT AND DAY TRAILER:
This looks cheesy, but fun just the same. Mainly due to its two leads: Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. Cruise is an allegedly framed spy who is being hunted by his own people and Diaz tags along via coincidence I suppose. It looks to be an action packed rom com that I might have to catch on DVD sometime. Cameron Diaz is always delightful, as well as being my first idea of what a very attractive woman looks like (I am a huge fan of The Mask.) and Tom Cruise sort of belongs in comedies after Tropic Thunder. I mean my god, he is freakin' genius. So yeah, Knight and Day looks pretty good.
UNTHINKABLE TRAILER:
This is going to be a propaganda movie somehow. I mean sure it looks pretty good, but I can't help myself but think it is just for some political message. The story is an American terrorist (played by Michael Sheen) is arrested after revealing he has planted bombs in major American cities. A problem solver (played by Samuel L. Jackson) is brought in to get the information on the bombs out of the terrorist by any means necessary. You know what that means. Jack Bauer time. Meanwhile a diplomatic agent pleads for the terrorist's rights. This can either be a movie carrying a message of torture being good or a message of torture being bad. I don't know. Performances look promising and suspense is guarenteed, but I just don't know.
THE OTHER GUYS TRAILER:
The Other Guys looks like the Cop Out movie I wanted to see. The comedy actually looks comedic. We got Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as two mismatched partners of course who try to make names for themselves in their precinct and be like the two true badass cops in the building who are played by Samuel L. Jackson and The Rock. We see a lot of scenes of comedy that just steal the breath with laughter. It looks like it's going to be very good. From the guys who brought us Anchorman and Step Brothers. How can we go wrong? Well a lot of ways, but The Other Guys still looks great.
THE LAST AIRBENDER TRAILER:
I didn't watch the show, so I can't really spectulate as to whether it looks to follow it or not. I'm told the show was kind of fun loving and goofy, while this movie looks really dramatic. Unfortunately they couldn't wrestle away the film's true "Avatar: The Last Airbender" title from James Cameron. It was for a good cause. I don't really know much about the plot, but it looks to be some kind of fantasy war of the mystical where a prophesized boy will lead a rebellion against some sort of "dark side" we'll say. It doesn't look half bad. It looks pretty excting actually, and I'm the one who thought Clash of the Titans looked lame. The Last Airbender is going to be directed by M. Night Shyamalan, a talented filmmaker who needs a movie like this to pick his career up. I'm just one of those people out there who has not given up hope for Shyamalan after The Happening. The guy who made The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs can't be a bad filmmaker. It's just not true. But yeah, Airbender looks cool.
INCEPTION TRAILER 2:
Though we get about as much story from this trailer as we do from the first, Inception still comes out looking like the best thing coming this year. Apparently the story involves a team of corporate thieves (led by Leonardo Dicaprio) who steal sensitive information and secrets by entering dreams, a skill that is both highly effective and extremely dangerous. But I guess these thieves come across something especially interesting in one mind in particular. With scenes of a city folding on top of itself and water shooting out and hanging in the air on a ceiling, this looks like it will be a science fiction thriller only modern film genius Christopher Nolan could think up. I am pumped for this movie than any other. Watch the trailer, it will mess with your head.
Well that has been my second issue of trailer sum ups. I know I left a few out but I feel the ones I did include would be satisfactory. We have a lot of different movies to look forward to. Now we play the waiting game. Thanks for reading.
ECLIPSE TRAILER:
The third installment in that ever popular Twilight series. I think this trailer gives the Twihards just about everything they'd want: I mean we have Edward and Bella looking deep into each others eyes and declaring love for one another in a patch of the world's most beautiful flowers again. We got Jacob telling her how he is obviously a better match for her and she ignoring him again. We got Edward and Jacob arguing over Bella's well being again. We got the Volturi mad about Bella's non-vampirism (or as vampiric as these guys can be) again. We got Jacob's standard shirtless shot again...and many, many more to come I'm sure. Then we get that chick no one paid attention to in the last two movies coming back to paid attention to for the first time. Bravo vampire villain whose name I don't remember. Three things that actually do bother me about this trailer: first off the Volturi look ridiculous, all of the villains do (can't any of them go to Men's Warehouse or Kohl's?). Secondly, why do the vampires all have those oddly colored eyes, I mean the sparkle thing is annoying but that only makes them look like Ken dolls sprinkled with glitter. The eyes are just cartoonish though. Then lastly, there is a point in the trailer where Bella tells Jacob "you don't know what you're getting yourself into." I'm assuming the subject is the queen vampire's little army she's cooking up. But, this Jacob guy kills vampires, his whole family does. What does Bella do? She dates one, and gets threatened by all of the others. Why the hell is she telling Jacob to stay away, he's a little more vampire battle savvy than you are. I mean, come on. Okay, but back on point. If you are a fan of Twilight you will probably love this movie, or hate it depending on your opinions of adaptations. It looks okay, but then again I thought New Moon looked okay too and that was just obliterated by everyone. So yeah, I might take a rain check for now. At least until after I see New Moon.
IRON MAN 2 TRAILER 2:I reviewed the first trailer, I know, but there has been a wider scale of promotion for the Iron Man sequel since that time. I remember the time when Iron Man 2's trailer just came out, it was around the time Avatar was about to be released. And I found people actually saying Iron Man 2 looked better than Avatar. After I was restrained and the world started making sense again, I found the whole new promotion for Iron Man 2. I come back to the same conclusion. We got villains played by Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell. Perfect. Don Cheadle replacing Terrance Howard as Jimmy Rhodes/War Machine. I'll miss Howard, but Cheadle is still awesome. Gweneth Paltrow and Scarlett Johannson as the ace vixens of the show. They are both superb actresses, and plus Gweneth Paltrow has always been beautiful and how could I pass up Scarlett Johannson as the black leather clad Black Widow. I can't. And of course we get awesome action and one-liners delivered by Robert Downey, Jr. in his destiny role as Iron Man. It looks really good, even better than the first.
THE A TEAM TRAILER 2:
Okay while looking better than the first trailer, I still can't help but think this is going to be lame. I mean sure if we suspend our beliefs and remember the good old days of the original A Team (not that I remember any) this movie could be really good. I'd see it for the actors. I mean sure Bradley Cooper is pretty good, all I know about Rampage Jackson is that he was on UFC or something, but it's got Liam Neeson (Schindler!!!) and Sharlto Copley (you know the badass office worker turned alien from District 9). I am kind of surprised it is being directed by Joe Carnahan, director of the extremely awesome movies Smokin' Aces and Narc. Maybe it could be okay. Not something I'd see in theatres, but okay nonetheless.
THE LOSERS TRAILER:
Why is this called The Losers? In the trailer they seem to be winning and leading very badass lives. Maybe they all die at the end, I don't know. Essentially this looks like a better version of The A Team movie coming out. It's got just as many good actors in it and the action looks just as superb. Okay who do we got: Jefferey Dean Morgan from Supernatural and Watchmen; Chris Evans, that decent actor who is starring in everything; Jason Patric, who might need a better agent but still hey Jason Patric; Zoe Saldana...well what more can I say. I mean I'm at least going to watch some of this movie if she is gonna be in it. One thing I like better than a gorgeous actress, is a gorgeous actress who can act and look good with a gun. Oh will the testosterone ever cease!? No. Also another one I don't want to see in theatres, but it looks pretty good. Though the fact that Hollywood is raiding every comic book store in America for graphic novel stories is kind of tedious.
THE EXPENDABLES TRAILER:
And finally the third A Team lookalike and ironically the one I want to see. Why? Because of the cast. Writing, directing, and starring is Sylvester Stallone. Sly Stallone is the leader of a league of the world's greatest mercenaries. Who are they? Jason Stathem, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, and Randy Couture. They are hired to take down a small army of bad guys led by bigger bad guys. Who are they? Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. They are hired by some shady figures. Who are they? Bruce Willis and...wait for it...ARNOLD SCHWARZENNEGAR!!! It must be 4/20 'cause I think I'm high!!! I know this may only be a cameo but so long has it been that I've seen Arnold on the screen. I watched this trailer and shouted out "YESSS!!!" The Expendables is essentially going to be a big action extravaganza in which the biggest badassess ever to appear on screen (with the exception of Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, Jackie Chan, Samuel L. Jackson, and the king himself Clint Eastwood) duke it out in a flurry of bullets and explosions. I don't care what it takes, this is a theatre movie. My inner child cries out for The Expendables, it really does.
PREDATORS TRAILER:
Finally, Predators get back to the jungle where they are killing people of my species, who I actually have sympathy for, instead of the xenomorphs from Alien. Alright I feel about Predators the same way I feel about The Expendables. But instead of just throwing a bunch of badasses into a movie and have them fight each other, it has them work together to fight the species that has badassary not only in their culture, but in their blood. The story is, a bunch of Earth's most lethal people are abducted and brought to an alien jungle planet. The only thing there it seems besides them are the Predators. Need I remind you that just one of these things killed several dozen commandos and almost killed the Govenator himself back in the '80s. Rounding out the cast is Adrien Brody as an American mercenary, Alice Braga as a Black Ops sniper, Laurence Fishburne as a veteran soldier, Danny Trejo as a drug trafficer, Topher Grace as a serial killer (seriously?), and some other guys I don't know as Russian and African mercs, a yakuza assassin, and a death row inmate. Do they stand a chance? Probably not, but it'll be fun seeing them go at it. This movie looks really good, even scary. I'd see it in theatres. Plus, you just gotta love a Predator. They may be some ugly motherfuckers but they are dedicated.
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET TRAILER 2:
It still looks like it will be pretty good. I mean sure they will do what every other remake of a horror movie these days does and rehash the same story with a few tweaks here and there. But I think this will be more along the lines of how The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was, where we get whole new elements and possibly even story and both are even better. Still it looks like the driving force behind this movie is Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Kruger. I swear to god his deep voice is due to the fact that his larynx came from that of the Grim Reaper. Sure he still sounds like Rorschach from Watchmen, but Rorschach from Watchmen was scary as hell and he was the good guy. It could be fun, but, knowing my disappointments with the last few remakes, I will wait for DVD.
PEACOCK TRAILER:
Now this looks bizarre. But my kind of bizarre. I read about this before seeing the trailer, and it honestly sounded like it was going to be a comedy. The story is about a secretive accountant played by Cillian Murphy (you know, Scarecrow from Batman Begins) who dons an alternate identity in the privacy of his home. While out and about he is the quiet husband nobody has a problem with. While at home he is a homemaker wife who takes care of the house and never sees anybody. His sex life must be far less complicated than most marriages. But a train comes crashing into his yard and everyone sees him as her. They assume he is just the wife he never told anyone about. But now everything's gone out of control as Murphy's tries to keep up appearances as both husband and wife, even while the wife personality is growing unstable. Rounding out the cast is Ellen Page, Susan Sarandon, Josh Lucas, Keith Carradine, and Bill Pullman. Awesome. It looks like it will be a really smart and intense movie. I'd definitely see it.
EAT PRAY LOVE TRAILER:
Who doesn't want to see a movie where Julia Roberts seeks out her independance by going traveling across the world by herself and finding peace? Maybe most of the male audience but that's beside the point. The movie looks decent, but the trailer doesn't give much to be excited about other than Julia Roberts, who has not acted in too many movies lately. It's not that she's a bad actress, she's a great actress, but just not in as high of demand as she was in the '90s. Not a theatre movie for me, but I might watch it some other time. It might be up to you girls to watch Eat Pray Love.
KNIGHT AND DAY TRAILER:
This looks cheesy, but fun just the same. Mainly due to its two leads: Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. Cruise is an allegedly framed spy who is being hunted by his own people and Diaz tags along via coincidence I suppose. It looks to be an action packed rom com that I might have to catch on DVD sometime. Cameron Diaz is always delightful, as well as being my first idea of what a very attractive woman looks like (I am a huge fan of The Mask.) and Tom Cruise sort of belongs in comedies after Tropic Thunder. I mean my god, he is freakin' genius. So yeah, Knight and Day looks pretty good.
UNTHINKABLE TRAILER:
This is going to be a propaganda movie somehow. I mean sure it looks pretty good, but I can't help myself but think it is just for some political message. The story is an American terrorist (played by Michael Sheen) is arrested after revealing he has planted bombs in major American cities. A problem solver (played by Samuel L. Jackson) is brought in to get the information on the bombs out of the terrorist by any means necessary. You know what that means. Jack Bauer time. Meanwhile a diplomatic agent pleads for the terrorist's rights. This can either be a movie carrying a message of torture being good or a message of torture being bad. I don't know. Performances look promising and suspense is guarenteed, but I just don't know.
THE OTHER GUYS TRAILER:
The Other Guys looks like the Cop Out movie I wanted to see. The comedy actually looks comedic. We got Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as two mismatched partners of course who try to make names for themselves in their precinct and be like the two true badass cops in the building who are played by Samuel L. Jackson and The Rock. We see a lot of scenes of comedy that just steal the breath with laughter. It looks like it's going to be very good. From the guys who brought us Anchorman and Step Brothers. How can we go wrong? Well a lot of ways, but The Other Guys still looks great.
THE LAST AIRBENDER TRAILER:
I didn't watch the show, so I can't really spectulate as to whether it looks to follow it or not. I'm told the show was kind of fun loving and goofy, while this movie looks really dramatic. Unfortunately they couldn't wrestle away the film's true "Avatar: The Last Airbender" title from James Cameron. It was for a good cause. I don't really know much about the plot, but it looks to be some kind of fantasy war of the mystical where a prophesized boy will lead a rebellion against some sort of "dark side" we'll say. It doesn't look half bad. It looks pretty excting actually, and I'm the one who thought Clash of the Titans looked lame. The Last Airbender is going to be directed by M. Night Shyamalan, a talented filmmaker who needs a movie like this to pick his career up. I'm just one of those people out there who has not given up hope for Shyamalan after The Happening. The guy who made The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs can't be a bad filmmaker. It's just not true. But yeah, Airbender looks cool.
INCEPTION TRAILER 2:
Though we get about as much story from this trailer as we do from the first, Inception still comes out looking like the best thing coming this year. Apparently the story involves a team of corporate thieves (led by Leonardo Dicaprio) who steal sensitive information and secrets by entering dreams, a skill that is both highly effective and extremely dangerous. But I guess these thieves come across something especially interesting in one mind in particular. With scenes of a city folding on top of itself and water shooting out and hanging in the air on a ceiling, this looks like it will be a science fiction thriller only modern film genius Christopher Nolan could think up. I am pumped for this movie than any other. Watch the trailer, it will mess with your head.
Well that has been my second issue of trailer sum ups. I know I left a few out but I feel the ones I did include would be satisfactory. We have a lot of different movies to look forward to. Now we play the waiting game. Thanks for reading.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Past 100
Once upon a time there was a young writer living in an insignificant Indiana town. This writer could not bring himself to writer more than three pages. Feeling books were out of the question, he decided to instead continue honing whatever skills he had as a writer. His first thought was to become an essayist, pretty much because he had just looked up the word on Wikipedia. Rather than begin writing, he went downstairs to brag to his mother about what he was going to do. She wondered if he might want to try a blog on the internet. After some skepticism, he thought it was brilliant. After some trouble starting up the blog (for the writer knew little of computer mechanics), he had his mother set up for him. For anonymities sake, this writer took a name. A name people would remember. A name that was both awkward and sexy at the same time. A name that would inspire people to read so that they could be inspired by other things. He chose this name. Than he realized this name was silly and decided to call himself Your Modest Guru. That was where he began. This is where he is right now.
...too much?
I, Your Modest Guru, am proud to announce I have written over one-hundred posts for this very blog. True it may be one of the most unorganized blogs out there, and true I did basically piggy back my way to 100 posts via Lost related things. On the other hand, I'm the kind of guy who takes what he can get mostly.
For starters what have I talked about during the last 100 entries to my online journal of sorts. Essentially it is a huge web of everything that puzzles me or fascinates or cool stuff I just like to do. I've talked about just about everything I felt was couth. From social commentary to celebrity gossip to political drama to reviews to Lost analysis. As Johnny Cash once said, I've been everywhere, man. With this I've been able to unleash all the thoughts that make me feel angry or happy into creative writing. I've been able to not only talk about but to go into detail of the things that I find especially cool. The blog has become a pretty exciting new development in my daily routine. I went into this not expecting droves of subscribers and followers, but to get what's on my mind out in the open and entertain myself. Knowing that I have done both effectively, I can honestly say it's been a good run.
Thanks for reading and I hope you keep reading. Because I am going to keep writing.
...too much?
I, Your Modest Guru, am proud to announce I have written over one-hundred posts for this very blog. True it may be one of the most unorganized blogs out there, and true I did basically piggy back my way to 100 posts via Lost related things. On the other hand, I'm the kind of guy who takes what he can get mostly.
For starters what have I talked about during the last 100 entries to my online journal of sorts. Essentially it is a huge web of everything that puzzles me or fascinates or cool stuff I just like to do. I've talked about just about everything I felt was couth. From social commentary to celebrity gossip to political drama to reviews to Lost analysis. As Johnny Cash once said, I've been everywhere, man. With this I've been able to unleash all the thoughts that make me feel angry or happy into creative writing. I've been able to not only talk about but to go into detail of the things that I find especially cool. The blog has become a pretty exciting new development in my daily routine. I went into this not expecting droves of subscribers and followers, but to get what's on my mind out in the open and entertain myself. Knowing that I have done both effectively, I can honestly say it's been a good run.
Thanks for reading and I hope you keep reading. Because I am going to keep writing.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Lost: Superman's Sideways
"I don't think you are real...I don't think any of this is real." - Kal-El
Since the beginning of season 6, the new seperate story method known as flash-sideways was really interesting. With the future altering nuke of yester-season's finale I was convinced that it would either not work and things would just play out on the Island or things would work and we'd see what would happen if everyone's lives were changed forever. I was pleased they went with both; Lost is, among many things, an equal-opportunist. Flash-sideways takes place not at a different point in time exactly, but in a whole new timeline. It is an altered reality where flight 815 not only didn't crashed but the lives of the would-be castaways were significantly different. Or should I say significantly better, for most of them. It seems this is a perfect world where the flaws the Island inhabitants have had for the past five seasons could be mended. A world where Jack overcomes his own father issues by reconnecting to his sideways son; where John Locke is still madly in love with Helen and moves past his irreversible condition; where Hurley is not shunned for his wealth but revered; where Sawyer is a respected man of the law; where Ben chose love over power; where Sun and Jin's relationship has not been destroyed. A world where they have everything they may have wanted or should have gotten. It seems just like heaven, as Hurley once stated after he left the Island in the original timeline. It's too damn perfect is the problem.
Since the beginning of this season I've been reading Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly's spirited and intricate reviews and analysis' of Lost. Now he has many theories and the ones I find fascinating and believeable kind of match up with the ones I find strange and improbable. One such theory was that the sideways reality was perhaps a construction of the original timeline villain The Man in Black. A matrix type prison world where he could keep the better angels of the castaways, especially Jacob's candidates, docile, controlled, and out of his way most importantly for the sake of whatever plan he has. I don't necessarily buy it, because I think even that, complicated as it may be, is too simple. But, supposing if this theory is true, I have come up with my own connection to it. I will elaborate:
Awhile before Lost, I was a pretty decent comic book reader and enjoyed most of what I read. One I didn't read however was the one time comic book "For The Man Who Has Everything." This was a Justice League special issue of sorts written by master comic writer and literary genius Alan Moore (writer of Watchmen and V for Vendetta). I didn't read the book but I saw the TV version. The story started out kind of cheesy: Wonder Woman, Batman, and Robin head down to Superman's Fortress of Solitude for his birthday. When they get there however they find Superman in a catatonic trance due to a weird thing on his chest. Mongol, an alien warlord and one of Superman's enemies, shows up and explains the thing on his chest is called "Black Mercy" and is an alien creature that when latched onto a person produces an intense and all too realistic presentation of their greatest fantasy. In short, The Black Mercy has trapped Superman inside the world he always wanted. With the only one powerful enough to stop him out of the way, Mongol prepares to kill the trio and then conquer the world. The three heroes try to fight off Mongol while also trying desperately to remove the alien from Superman's chest. Superman is living out the perfect life in his fantasy however: he is living a peaceful life under his birthname Kal-El on his homeworld of Krypton (which never blew up in this world) with a wife Lana Lane (a compound of the two women he loved the most on earth) and a son Van-El. If you know the origin of Superman, which is very tragic, you can't deny this isn't his perfect world.
There are many similarities between Lost and For The Man Who Has Everything now because of this whole "perfect world" concept both have invested in. On Lost, the people in the sideways reality often find themselves gazing into the mirror as if they are noticing something is off; in the comic, Superman begins noticing that something is wrong with his world as Batman tries to break through his fantasy. Desmond can be seen as Batman, I suppose, as both are trying to show the people living in a dream the truth. If Jeff Jensen's theory is correct, than Mongol would obviously be The Man in Black. And like the Lost dreamers, Superman's world is not totally perfect in every aspect; Superman's father Jor-El still predicted Krypton's destruction and because it didn't blow up in this world his reputation was ruined.
So if this theory of The Man in Black being the one truly behind the sideways universe, I wonder will Lost end like For the Man Who Has Everything? In that ending, the heroes found a way to pull the Black Mercy off of Superman's chest. In his crumbling fantasy, Superman's head became more and more clear until he realized what was going on. As the fantasy ends, he has a heartbreaking scene with his son where he says that: "you are everything I've ever wanted in a son. This is everything I've ever wanted in a life. But I have responsibilities and now I have to go." He hugs his son as his perfect world dissolves. Once off the Black Mercy then bonds with Batman, who experiences an equally beautiful fantasy where his parents weren't murdered and he lived a wonderful life as well before the alien is pulled off of him as well. Awoken from his dream and furious that it ended, Superman brutally attacks and almost kills Mongol. Mongol begins to get the upper hand again however, but just as he is about to kill Superman, the other bloodied heroes toss The Black Mercy onto Mongol who falls into the trance now. Maybe Lost will end with the sideways reality people waking up from that dream world into the Island world where their currently incomplete counterparts will be totally complete. And after they defeat The Man in Black, they will do like the four heroes of the comic and pick up the pieces and accept the real world as home. And in turn the Man in Black will end up like Mongol, who saw himself escaping the Black Mercy, killing the heroes, and conquering the world like he wanted; maybe MIB will imagine a world where he rid himself of Islands, candidates, humans alike, and roamed the planet alone and free.
But only time will tell. Like I said I don't really buy the idea that The Man in Black has created the sideways reality, but that idea still reminded me of probably one of the saddest comic book stories I've found. We only have five episodes left, let's see how it all goes even if I do keep presenting my ludicrous ideas. Thanks for reading.
Since the beginning of season 6, the new seperate story method known as flash-sideways was really interesting. With the future altering nuke of yester-season's finale I was convinced that it would either not work and things would just play out on the Island or things would work and we'd see what would happen if everyone's lives were changed forever. I was pleased they went with both; Lost is, among many things, an equal-opportunist. Flash-sideways takes place not at a different point in time exactly, but in a whole new timeline. It is an altered reality where flight 815 not only didn't crashed but the lives of the would-be castaways were significantly different. Or should I say significantly better, for most of them. It seems this is a perfect world where the flaws the Island inhabitants have had for the past five seasons could be mended. A world where Jack overcomes his own father issues by reconnecting to his sideways son; where John Locke is still madly in love with Helen and moves past his irreversible condition; where Hurley is not shunned for his wealth but revered; where Sawyer is a respected man of the law; where Ben chose love over power; where Sun and Jin's relationship has not been destroyed. A world where they have everything they may have wanted or should have gotten. It seems just like heaven, as Hurley once stated after he left the Island in the original timeline. It's too damn perfect is the problem.
Since the beginning of this season I've been reading Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly's spirited and intricate reviews and analysis' of Lost. Now he has many theories and the ones I find fascinating and believeable kind of match up with the ones I find strange and improbable. One such theory was that the sideways reality was perhaps a construction of the original timeline villain The Man in Black. A matrix type prison world where he could keep the better angels of the castaways, especially Jacob's candidates, docile, controlled, and out of his way most importantly for the sake of whatever plan he has. I don't necessarily buy it, because I think even that, complicated as it may be, is too simple. But, supposing if this theory is true, I have come up with my own connection to it. I will elaborate:
Awhile before Lost, I was a pretty decent comic book reader and enjoyed most of what I read. One I didn't read however was the one time comic book "For The Man Who Has Everything." This was a Justice League special issue of sorts written by master comic writer and literary genius Alan Moore (writer of Watchmen and V for Vendetta). I didn't read the book but I saw the TV version. The story started out kind of cheesy: Wonder Woman, Batman, and Robin head down to Superman's Fortress of Solitude for his birthday. When they get there however they find Superman in a catatonic trance due to a weird thing on his chest. Mongol, an alien warlord and one of Superman's enemies, shows up and explains the thing on his chest is called "Black Mercy" and is an alien creature that when latched onto a person produces an intense and all too realistic presentation of their greatest fantasy. In short, The Black Mercy has trapped Superman inside the world he always wanted. With the only one powerful enough to stop him out of the way, Mongol prepares to kill the trio and then conquer the world. The three heroes try to fight off Mongol while also trying desperately to remove the alien from Superman's chest. Superman is living out the perfect life in his fantasy however: he is living a peaceful life under his birthname Kal-El on his homeworld of Krypton (which never blew up in this world) with a wife Lana Lane (a compound of the two women he loved the most on earth) and a son Van-El. If you know the origin of Superman, which is very tragic, you can't deny this isn't his perfect world.
There are many similarities between Lost and For The Man Who Has Everything now because of this whole "perfect world" concept both have invested in. On Lost, the people in the sideways reality often find themselves gazing into the mirror as if they are noticing something is off; in the comic, Superman begins noticing that something is wrong with his world as Batman tries to break through his fantasy. Desmond can be seen as Batman, I suppose, as both are trying to show the people living in a dream the truth. If Jeff Jensen's theory is correct, than Mongol would obviously be The Man in Black. And like the Lost dreamers, Superman's world is not totally perfect in every aspect; Superman's father Jor-El still predicted Krypton's destruction and because it didn't blow up in this world his reputation was ruined.
So if this theory of The Man in Black being the one truly behind the sideways universe, I wonder will Lost end like For the Man Who Has Everything? In that ending, the heroes found a way to pull the Black Mercy off of Superman's chest. In his crumbling fantasy, Superman's head became more and more clear until he realized what was going on. As the fantasy ends, he has a heartbreaking scene with his son where he says that: "you are everything I've ever wanted in a son. This is everything I've ever wanted in a life. But I have responsibilities and now I have to go." He hugs his son as his perfect world dissolves. Once off the Black Mercy then bonds with Batman, who experiences an equally beautiful fantasy where his parents weren't murdered and he lived a wonderful life as well before the alien is pulled off of him as well. Awoken from his dream and furious that it ended, Superman brutally attacks and almost kills Mongol. Mongol begins to get the upper hand again however, but just as he is about to kill Superman, the other bloodied heroes toss The Black Mercy onto Mongol who falls into the trance now. Maybe Lost will end with the sideways reality people waking up from that dream world into the Island world where their currently incomplete counterparts will be totally complete. And after they defeat The Man in Black, they will do like the four heroes of the comic and pick up the pieces and accept the real world as home. And in turn the Man in Black will end up like Mongol, who saw himself escaping the Black Mercy, killing the heroes, and conquering the world like he wanted; maybe MIB will imagine a world where he rid himself of Islands, candidates, humans alike, and roamed the planet alone and free.
But only time will tell. Like I said I don't really buy the idea that The Man in Black has created the sideways reality, but that idea still reminded me of probably one of the saddest comic book stories I've found. We only have five episodes left, let's see how it all goes even if I do keep presenting my ludicrous ideas. Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Top Lost Season 5 Moments
The second to last chapter in my favorite moments of Lost. We arrive at season 5, where we follow two groups: there are those fateful six who escaped the Island as destiny comes knocking for them to return three years later, and in the past those left behind on the Island suffer problems far beyond ordinary. Here we go again.
SPOILERS
Hurley's Explanation
"Now this bad stuff is happening because we shouldn't have lied." - Hurley
After the six escaped the Island and took Locke's advice to lie about everything that had happened, the only one who was against this plan was Hurley. He just didn't think it was right to lie and leave everyone else behind. Cut to three years later, after Hurley is wanted for murders that Sayid committed while rescuing him, he has a tearful moment with his concerned mother. Hurley tells her about the lie and then, in a moment that is supposed to be emotional and funny I assume, he summarizes everything that happened on The Island from his perspective. He describes it all the way Hurley usually does things: like a real person. Seriously, all along Hurley has been the most metafictional character in the show; just about everything he says in season 6 is a little wink and giggle to the audience. He tells his mother every crazy thing worth mentioning (except maybe the polar bears) and she tells him: "I believe you. I don't understand you, but I believe you." I thought this was just a great scene, and early on in the season too.
9. Kate says goodbye
"Bye bye, baby!" - Kate
After leaving the Island with Claire's baby, Aaron, Kate took it upon herself to raise the child. Over the next three years she gets used to being a stay-at-home mom and loves Aaron like he was her own. But during Ben's mission to get those who left back to The Island, Kate found many forces trying to pull her and Aaron apart and expose their lie. Kate soon realized that despite everything, she was not Aaron's mother. A friend points out that she took responsibility for him out of grief when Sawyer stayed behind on the Island. And so, she gave Aaron to Claire's mother and told her the truth about what happened to Claire and also her intention of going back to the Island to get Claire back. After this, Kate has one of her most emotional moments ever over the sleeping boy. In tears and pain, she gently took notice of every detail of him and said goodbye. This scene was just heartbreaking. One of Kate's best scenes.
8. Ben's judgement
"Oh Alex, I'm so sorry." - Ben
Ben lies to the "resurrected" John Locke on the Island and tells him he came back to be judged. Ben in actuality was coming back to reassume power, but Locke was insistant on helping Ben in his quest for judgement. They found the temple wall, and the two went underneath. Ben fell through a hole in the floor and Locke claimed to be going to find a way to get him out. Ben continued on down below. He found a large room, fully of writing and drawings on the wall. He summoned The Monster it would seem, the judge in this situation. The Monster engulfed Ben in the smoke and showed him images from his life with Alex, the girl he raised as a daughter. From the moment he took responsibility for her as an infant to the moment he watched her get gunned down. Ben was racked with anguish over the selfish sacrifices he made for power. The smoke vanishes soon enough. Then, when he is totally vulnerable, an apparition of Alex appears before Ben. She is calm at first as he tries to beg for forgiveness, then on a dime she attacks him. She states her knowledge of his plan to kill Locke again and tells him to instead follow his every word if he enjoys living. He agrees, she disappears, and he breaks down in tears of horror and sadness. Finding Locke later (wonder where he was?), Ben states simply: "It let me live." This was another rare and powerful moment where Ben was at his lowest and out of his shell. A point where he can't hide what a small and sad man he is. We felt like Ben in this scene, saddened and terrified all at once.
7. Jack vs. Sawyer
"You think you can do whatever you want?!" - Sawyer
When Jack is about to change the lives of everyone by detenonating a nuclear bomb at the Hatch construction site of 1977, Sawyer takes Jack aside and has a talk with him. Sawyer has made a life for himself in the '70s Dharma Initiative and is happy. He doesn't want Jack to ruin that and everything else. Sawyer tries to reason with Jack that what's done is done and asks him what he wants out of all of this. Jack claims that his failure at making a life with Kate is the main reason, and that it is too late to do anything about it accept set off the change the past thereby altering the future (er, I mean present. Confusing!) Realizing Jack has "gone Locke" and won't listen to reason, Sawyer proceeds to knock him silly. They have a pretty good fist fight that gets them both bloody and bashed real bad. Sawyer finally gets the upperhand and demands that Jack stop. He won't, so Sawyer proceeds to tearfully pummell Jack senseless. He is only saved when Juliet comes along and stops the fight. I loves me some fights on Lost, be it with guns or fists. This is one of the best by far. I also loved the turn around here. Sawyer and Jack here are almost totally different than when they first met: Jack was the man of reason who resorted to violence when all else failed, and Sawyer was the rebel troublemaker who wouldn't give up. It's a great scene.
6. The end of John Locke
"I don't understand." - Locke's last thought, apparently
John Locke used Jacob's magic wheel in the ground to get off of the Island three years into the future. He found himself in the Tunisian desert with a broken leg and a camera monitor staring him down. He was later picked up by locals who treated his wound. Locke is approached by then enemy Charles Widmore who claims that he is on Locke's side, that Locke is very crucial to what will soon happen on the Island, and that he will help Locke bring the ones who left the Island back. Locke is chauffered all across the world by Matthew Abbadon, Widmore's employee who is also the same who told Locke to go on a walkabout in the past. Locke finds just about everyone and tries to convince them to come back but they won't listen to him. He even meets Walt, whom he doesn't ask to come back. Walt says he had a dream where Locke was on the Island surrounded by people who wanted to hurt him. Locke also tries to find Helen, the woman he loved and lost. She died of cancer however awhile a few years prior, however. After his failure to get anyone to come back with him, Locke decides to commit suicide in a last ditch effort to unite the former castaways. Ben shows up just in time though. He claims Widmore manipulated him and asks Locke to let him help. Locke listens and does stop. Ben says Jack was convinced by what Locke told him and that he has started flying planes. The two begin discussing how they are going to get everyone back. Once Ben has enough information about Locke's mission, he strangles him violently and then manipulates the murder to look like a suicide. As he leaves, Ben says he will miss him. This was not quite the epic death I had predicted Locke to have: being choked to death in a cheap Los Angeles motel, but I guess I should have seen it coming. It's fitting I guess that Ben would be the one to kill him. They were always rivals, maybe even moreso than with Jack. This was sad seeing. John was my favorite character and this was the last time we see him, I mean really see him in all of his Locke-ness.
5. The merry adventures of Sayid and Little Ben
"You're a killer, Sayid." - Ben
A little boy in 1970s Iraq was asked to kill a chicken to feed his family. He couldn't do it, so his little brother quickly killed the chicken to help him. The father praised his other, stronger son. The brother's name was Sayid Jarrah. Sayid spent most of his time off the Island as Ben's personal assassin, killing employees of Charles Widmore apparently. He did this out of debt for Ben's help in finding the man who killed Sayid's true love Nadia. Eventually after god knows how many murders, Ben claimed there were no more people to kill, he had done well, and said goodbye and have a nice life. But there was no life to go back to really. Ben showed up again later, asking Sayid to kill an operative spying on Hurley. When Sayid declines, sly Ben remarks on the fact that all of the violent things Sayid has done in his life were in his nature to begin with. Sayid can't argue with it seems, as he does kill the man watching Hurley. When he is brought back to the Island of the 1970s, Sayid is captured by the Dharma Initiative and mistaken for one of The Others. Sayid doesn't know what to do until he meets a little boy who brings him food. A boy named Ben Linus. Sayid comforts young Ben as his father verbally and physically abuses him. He convinces the sly kid to release him so they can run away and join The Others. Once they are in the jungle, Sayid gets a hold of a gun. He stares at morosely. He tells unsuspecting litle Ben future Ben was right about him. "I am a killer." Sayid says right before he shoots the 12 year old boy in the chest. Overcome with horror and sadness (even if it was Ben it was still a kid), Sayid runs off into the night. Though I kind of knew this would happen the moment Ben introduced himself to his future self's enemy, I was still shocked. I remember I thought it was ballsy when they shot sixteen-year-old Alex in the back of the head last scene, but this was quite a step further. I mean, sheesh!
"Locke" and Ben discuss killing Jacob
Once he is "alive" on the Island, John Locke was just as confident and mysterious as he was at the series' beginning. He eventually found The Others, assumed leadership, and set out to find Jacob with everyone else. He says intends to find out why they are being led by Jacob and get questions answered. However, Locke tells Ben that he is going to kill Jacob. Not only that, but he wants Ben to do it for him. Ben is especially shocked at this. When he asks Locke why he wants him to do it, Locke unsympathetically reminds Ben of all he endured in his service to Jacob: getting cancer, watching his daughter die, his banishment from the Island. And then asks "Why the hell wouldn't you want to kill Jacob." Ben is left with a lot to think about. Maybe there were a lot more epic and interesting things going on in the 1977 timeline, but I found the 2007 timeline to be much more intriguing after this. I was dying of anticipation.
3. Jack's wrinkle in time/the battle for change
"This is our destiny." - Jack
Jack made a transition here in season 5 from being the man of science we've known and loved throughout the series to being the man of faith he has opposed and rebelled against for so long. After Daniel Faraday lays down the knowledge on what they have to do, Jack is all for it. The plan is dig up an old nuke buried on the Island in the '50s, bring it to the site of the Swan Hatch where the intense pocket electromagnetism lies dorment, drop the bomb in, it goes off, and everything that happened to them will be erased and flight 815 of 2004 will land safely in Los Angeles and never crash on the Island. Jack sees it as a way out. A way to negate all of the terrible things that have happened since they crashed on the Island. A way to save all of those he couldn't save. He believed he would make things right. That this was his true destiny. After some arguement with his friends, Jack was finally allowed to make his way to the hatch construction site where he faces armed Dharma folks. Just when he is about to be shot down, his friends (Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles) show up and go to war with the DI of the past. After all the security team is dead or captured, Jack drops the bomb down the shaft to the EM pocket. The castaways wait to be erased and the new future to flourish. AND THEN.....nothing happens. Then all of a sudden the pocket is struck and everything metal starts to be dragged down the hatch. Jack gets knocked out with a toolbox (tee hee.) Juliet gets caught in a bunch of chains and pulled the hatch with everything else. Sawyer, her lover for three years, tries to save her but it is too late. After her body is almost completely broken at the bottom of the shaft, Juliet sees the bomb. She grabs a rock and desperately tries to smash it open. The series ends with one last knock on the bomb, a boom, and a bright flash. Then only the title card: LOST. Nuff said.
2. All of Jacob's flashbacks
"It only ends once, anything that happens before that is just progress." - Jacob
I couldn't possibly pick one of these flashbacks because they were all golden in my opinion. Except Ilana's flashback, I didn't think there was much to that. Here he is at last. The man behind the curtain. Jacob. He is the mysterious unseen Island deity.
JACOB AND SOME GUY
We see at first munching on a roasting fish on the Island beach. He watches as an 1800s ship (The Black Rock?) draws close a few miles off in the water. A man dressed in black comes along and sits with him. He doesn't seem too happy about Jacob bringing people to the Island. Apparently there is a disagreement between the two as The Man in Black believes that all outsiders do is destroy and corrupt, while Jacob believes they can be good. After hearing just a little bit of Jacob's philosophy (something we sense he has had to hear for a long time), The Man in Black states his intention of killing Jacob, he can't do it himself, and he will find a "loophole" someday. Jacob doesn't seemed too fazed by this. The Man in Black leaves as we see they were sat beside the foot statue, but there was more than a foot there this time.
JACOB TRAVELS FOR BUSINESS NOT PLEASURE
We see Jacob in many different points in time all over the world it would seem. At each of these points he is meeting a few of the castaways before they were castaways. He finds Kate Austin as a little girl in Iowa stealing a New Kids on the Block lunchbox and pays for it so she won't get in trouble. He taps her nose cheerfully and leaves. He finds eight-year-old James Ford at his parents funeral in Alabama and gives him a pen to help him write a revenge letter to "Mr. Sawyer." He brushes his fingers as he hands the pen over, gives his condolences, and leaves. He shows up at Jin and Sun's wedding in Korea, wishing them well in their marriage, while laying a hand on their arms. He finds Sayid Jarrah with his wife Nadia. He taps on his shoulder asking for directions as Nadia is struck by a car and killed. He shows up outside of Hugo Reyes' prison awhile before the Oceanic Six returned to the Island. Jacob says he should think of his ability to commune with the dead as a gift and not a curse, tapping his chest while speaking. He leaves, giving Hurley a mysterious guitarcase. He shows up and helps Jack retrieve an Apollo bar from a hospital vending machine, brushing his hand as he gives it to him. Jacob is then seen reading a Flannery O'Conner book on a bench when a man falls from a window eight stories up. The man is of course John Locke, who lies unconscious or dead. Jacob walks over, grips his shoulder and John awakens shocked. Jacob reassures him that everything will be alright, and that he is sorry this happened. He leaves.
Quite simply this was all just very unique and gave me a lot to think about. For an episode that introduces the most mysterious character on the show and kills him almost immediately, we get a lot to wrap our heads around.
1. The death of Jacob/The rise of The Man in Black
"I guess you found your loophole." - Jacob
Anyone who is anyone knew right off when he returned to life on the Island that there was something wrong with John Locke. He was more confident, too confident. I felt what Sawyer says later on, "Locke was scared, even when he was pretending he wasn't." The thought occured that maybe he had some kind of knowledge from whatever afterlife awaited in him and total confidence in every action he took. But when he revealed his plan to kill Jacob, I knew he was way too different. Locke and Ben arrive at what's left of the Egyptian Statue and enter it to meet and Jacob and kill him, unbeknownest to Richard and The Others. Outside, a group of Jacob's bodyguards arrive and open up a box they've hauled around for awhile. Inside is revealed to be a body. John Locke's body. While everyone outside just looks in horror. Ben and the man posing as Locke greet a disappointed looking Jacob. "Locke" and Jacob makes it pretty clear they know each other. It becomes apparent that this man is actually The Man in Black from Jacob's first flashback. He has taken the appearance of John Locke to get to him and used Locke to manipulate everyone, especially the very confused Ben. Jacob tries to persuade Ben to leave and let them talk. Then Ben gives a very emotional speech of how he spent the majority of his life on the Island doing Jacob's bidding and was never allowed to see him. He demands to know why Locke was so much more special, he asks: "What about me?!" Jacob, sadly fatalistic, asks back, almost as if to test him: "What about you?" After the shock wears off, Ben furiously stabs him. Jacob falls over dying and whispers to The Man in Black: "They're coming." After a moment of alarm, The Man in Black kicks Jacob into the fire and watches him burn. Now that is a great cliffhanger. I'm still not quite sure "who" is coming, maybe the castaways from the past. This whole thing here just gave me a lot to look forward to. Especially some elaboration on the new antagonist, the man evil enough to take the shape of my fav character. The Man in Black.
But that's a story for the next chapter in my top Lost moments. Thanks for reading.
SPOILERS
Hurley's Explanation
"Now this bad stuff is happening because we shouldn't have lied." - Hurley
After the six escaped the Island and took Locke's advice to lie about everything that had happened, the only one who was against this plan was Hurley. He just didn't think it was right to lie and leave everyone else behind. Cut to three years later, after Hurley is wanted for murders that Sayid committed while rescuing him, he has a tearful moment with his concerned mother. Hurley tells her about the lie and then, in a moment that is supposed to be emotional and funny I assume, he summarizes everything that happened on The Island from his perspective. He describes it all the way Hurley usually does things: like a real person. Seriously, all along Hurley has been the most metafictional character in the show; just about everything he says in season 6 is a little wink and giggle to the audience. He tells his mother every crazy thing worth mentioning (except maybe the polar bears) and she tells him: "I believe you. I don't understand you, but I believe you." I thought this was just a great scene, and early on in the season too.
9. Kate says goodbye
"Bye bye, baby!" - Kate
After leaving the Island with Claire's baby, Aaron, Kate took it upon herself to raise the child. Over the next three years she gets used to being a stay-at-home mom and loves Aaron like he was her own. But during Ben's mission to get those who left back to The Island, Kate found many forces trying to pull her and Aaron apart and expose their lie. Kate soon realized that despite everything, she was not Aaron's mother. A friend points out that she took responsibility for him out of grief when Sawyer stayed behind on the Island. And so, she gave Aaron to Claire's mother and told her the truth about what happened to Claire and also her intention of going back to the Island to get Claire back. After this, Kate has one of her most emotional moments ever over the sleeping boy. In tears and pain, she gently took notice of every detail of him and said goodbye. This scene was just heartbreaking. One of Kate's best scenes.
8. Ben's judgement
"Oh Alex, I'm so sorry." - Ben
Ben lies to the "resurrected" John Locke on the Island and tells him he came back to be judged. Ben in actuality was coming back to reassume power, but Locke was insistant on helping Ben in his quest for judgement. They found the temple wall, and the two went underneath. Ben fell through a hole in the floor and Locke claimed to be going to find a way to get him out. Ben continued on down below. He found a large room, fully of writing and drawings on the wall. He summoned The Monster it would seem, the judge in this situation. The Monster engulfed Ben in the smoke and showed him images from his life with Alex, the girl he raised as a daughter. From the moment he took responsibility for her as an infant to the moment he watched her get gunned down. Ben was racked with anguish over the selfish sacrifices he made for power. The smoke vanishes soon enough. Then, when he is totally vulnerable, an apparition of Alex appears before Ben. She is calm at first as he tries to beg for forgiveness, then on a dime she attacks him. She states her knowledge of his plan to kill Locke again and tells him to instead follow his every word if he enjoys living. He agrees, she disappears, and he breaks down in tears of horror and sadness. Finding Locke later (wonder where he was?), Ben states simply: "It let me live." This was another rare and powerful moment where Ben was at his lowest and out of his shell. A point where he can't hide what a small and sad man he is. We felt like Ben in this scene, saddened and terrified all at once.
7. Jack vs. Sawyer
"You think you can do whatever you want?!" - Sawyer
When Jack is about to change the lives of everyone by detenonating a nuclear bomb at the Hatch construction site of 1977, Sawyer takes Jack aside and has a talk with him. Sawyer has made a life for himself in the '70s Dharma Initiative and is happy. He doesn't want Jack to ruin that and everything else. Sawyer tries to reason with Jack that what's done is done and asks him what he wants out of all of this. Jack claims that his failure at making a life with Kate is the main reason, and that it is too late to do anything about it accept set off the change the past thereby altering the future (er, I mean present. Confusing!) Realizing Jack has "gone Locke" and won't listen to reason, Sawyer proceeds to knock him silly. They have a pretty good fist fight that gets them both bloody and bashed real bad. Sawyer finally gets the upperhand and demands that Jack stop. He won't, so Sawyer proceeds to tearfully pummell Jack senseless. He is only saved when Juliet comes along and stops the fight. I loves me some fights on Lost, be it with guns or fists. This is one of the best by far. I also loved the turn around here. Sawyer and Jack here are almost totally different than when they first met: Jack was the man of reason who resorted to violence when all else failed, and Sawyer was the rebel troublemaker who wouldn't give up. It's a great scene.
6. The end of John Locke
"I don't understand." - Locke's last thought, apparently
John Locke used Jacob's magic wheel in the ground to get off of the Island three years into the future. He found himself in the Tunisian desert with a broken leg and a camera monitor staring him down. He was later picked up by locals who treated his wound. Locke is approached by then enemy Charles Widmore who claims that he is on Locke's side, that Locke is very crucial to what will soon happen on the Island, and that he will help Locke bring the ones who left the Island back. Locke is chauffered all across the world by Matthew Abbadon, Widmore's employee who is also the same who told Locke to go on a walkabout in the past. Locke finds just about everyone and tries to convince them to come back but they won't listen to him. He even meets Walt, whom he doesn't ask to come back. Walt says he had a dream where Locke was on the Island surrounded by people who wanted to hurt him. Locke also tries to find Helen, the woman he loved and lost. She died of cancer however awhile a few years prior, however. After his failure to get anyone to come back with him, Locke decides to commit suicide in a last ditch effort to unite the former castaways. Ben shows up just in time though. He claims Widmore manipulated him and asks Locke to let him help. Locke listens and does stop. Ben says Jack was convinced by what Locke told him and that he has started flying planes. The two begin discussing how they are going to get everyone back. Once Ben has enough information about Locke's mission, he strangles him violently and then manipulates the murder to look like a suicide. As he leaves, Ben says he will miss him. This was not quite the epic death I had predicted Locke to have: being choked to death in a cheap Los Angeles motel, but I guess I should have seen it coming. It's fitting I guess that Ben would be the one to kill him. They were always rivals, maybe even moreso than with Jack. This was sad seeing. John was my favorite character and this was the last time we see him, I mean really see him in all of his Locke-ness.
5. The merry adventures of Sayid and Little Ben
"You're a killer, Sayid." - Ben
A little boy in 1970s Iraq was asked to kill a chicken to feed his family. He couldn't do it, so his little brother quickly killed the chicken to help him. The father praised his other, stronger son. The brother's name was Sayid Jarrah. Sayid spent most of his time off the Island as Ben's personal assassin, killing employees of Charles Widmore apparently. He did this out of debt for Ben's help in finding the man who killed Sayid's true love Nadia. Eventually after god knows how many murders, Ben claimed there were no more people to kill, he had done well, and said goodbye and have a nice life. But there was no life to go back to really. Ben showed up again later, asking Sayid to kill an operative spying on Hurley. When Sayid declines, sly Ben remarks on the fact that all of the violent things Sayid has done in his life were in his nature to begin with. Sayid can't argue with it seems, as he does kill the man watching Hurley. When he is brought back to the Island of the 1970s, Sayid is captured by the Dharma Initiative and mistaken for one of The Others. Sayid doesn't know what to do until he meets a little boy who brings him food. A boy named Ben Linus. Sayid comforts young Ben as his father verbally and physically abuses him. He convinces the sly kid to release him so they can run away and join The Others. Once they are in the jungle, Sayid gets a hold of a gun. He stares at morosely. He tells unsuspecting litle Ben future Ben was right about him. "I am a killer." Sayid says right before he shoots the 12 year old boy in the chest. Overcome with horror and sadness (even if it was Ben it was still a kid), Sayid runs off into the night. Though I kind of knew this would happen the moment Ben introduced himself to his future self's enemy, I was still shocked. I remember I thought it was ballsy when they shot sixteen-year-old Alex in the back of the head last scene, but this was quite a step further. I mean, sheesh!
"Locke" and Ben discuss killing Jacob
Once he is "alive" on the Island, John Locke was just as confident and mysterious as he was at the series' beginning. He eventually found The Others, assumed leadership, and set out to find Jacob with everyone else. He says intends to find out why they are being led by Jacob and get questions answered. However, Locke tells Ben that he is going to kill Jacob. Not only that, but he wants Ben to do it for him. Ben is especially shocked at this. When he asks Locke why he wants him to do it, Locke unsympathetically reminds Ben of all he endured in his service to Jacob: getting cancer, watching his daughter die, his banishment from the Island. And then asks "Why the hell wouldn't you want to kill Jacob." Ben is left with a lot to think about. Maybe there were a lot more epic and interesting things going on in the 1977 timeline, but I found the 2007 timeline to be much more intriguing after this. I was dying of anticipation.
3. Jack's wrinkle in time/the battle for change
"This is our destiny." - Jack
Jack made a transition here in season 5 from being the man of science we've known and loved throughout the series to being the man of faith he has opposed and rebelled against for so long. After Daniel Faraday lays down the knowledge on what they have to do, Jack is all for it. The plan is dig up an old nuke buried on the Island in the '50s, bring it to the site of the Swan Hatch where the intense pocket electromagnetism lies dorment, drop the bomb in, it goes off, and everything that happened to them will be erased and flight 815 of 2004 will land safely in Los Angeles and never crash on the Island. Jack sees it as a way out. A way to negate all of the terrible things that have happened since they crashed on the Island. A way to save all of those he couldn't save. He believed he would make things right. That this was his true destiny. After some arguement with his friends, Jack was finally allowed to make his way to the hatch construction site where he faces armed Dharma folks. Just when he is about to be shot down, his friends (Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles) show up and go to war with the DI of the past. After all the security team is dead or captured, Jack drops the bomb down the shaft to the EM pocket. The castaways wait to be erased and the new future to flourish. AND THEN.....nothing happens. Then all of a sudden the pocket is struck and everything metal starts to be dragged down the hatch. Jack gets knocked out with a toolbox (tee hee.) Juliet gets caught in a bunch of chains and pulled the hatch with everything else. Sawyer, her lover for three years, tries to save her but it is too late. After her body is almost completely broken at the bottom of the shaft, Juliet sees the bomb. She grabs a rock and desperately tries to smash it open. The series ends with one last knock on the bomb, a boom, and a bright flash. Then only the title card: LOST. Nuff said.
2. All of Jacob's flashbacks
"It only ends once, anything that happens before that is just progress." - Jacob
I couldn't possibly pick one of these flashbacks because they were all golden in my opinion. Except Ilana's flashback, I didn't think there was much to that. Here he is at last. The man behind the curtain. Jacob. He is the mysterious unseen Island deity.
JACOB AND SOME GUY
We see at first munching on a roasting fish on the Island beach. He watches as an 1800s ship (The Black Rock?) draws close a few miles off in the water. A man dressed in black comes along and sits with him. He doesn't seem too happy about Jacob bringing people to the Island. Apparently there is a disagreement between the two as The Man in Black believes that all outsiders do is destroy and corrupt, while Jacob believes they can be good. After hearing just a little bit of Jacob's philosophy (something we sense he has had to hear for a long time), The Man in Black states his intention of killing Jacob, he can't do it himself, and he will find a "loophole" someday. Jacob doesn't seemed too fazed by this. The Man in Black leaves as we see they were sat beside the foot statue, but there was more than a foot there this time.
JACOB TRAVELS FOR BUSINESS NOT PLEASURE
We see Jacob in many different points in time all over the world it would seem. At each of these points he is meeting a few of the castaways before they were castaways. He finds Kate Austin as a little girl in Iowa stealing a New Kids on the Block lunchbox and pays for it so she won't get in trouble. He taps her nose cheerfully and leaves. He finds eight-year-old James Ford at his parents funeral in Alabama and gives him a pen to help him write a revenge letter to "Mr. Sawyer." He brushes his fingers as he hands the pen over, gives his condolences, and leaves. He shows up at Jin and Sun's wedding in Korea, wishing them well in their marriage, while laying a hand on their arms. He finds Sayid Jarrah with his wife Nadia. He taps on his shoulder asking for directions as Nadia is struck by a car and killed. He shows up outside of Hugo Reyes' prison awhile before the Oceanic Six returned to the Island. Jacob says he should think of his ability to commune with the dead as a gift and not a curse, tapping his chest while speaking. He leaves, giving Hurley a mysterious guitarcase. He shows up and helps Jack retrieve an Apollo bar from a hospital vending machine, brushing his hand as he gives it to him. Jacob is then seen reading a Flannery O'Conner book on a bench when a man falls from a window eight stories up. The man is of course John Locke, who lies unconscious or dead. Jacob walks over, grips his shoulder and John awakens shocked. Jacob reassures him that everything will be alright, and that he is sorry this happened. He leaves.
Quite simply this was all just very unique and gave me a lot to think about. For an episode that introduces the most mysterious character on the show and kills him almost immediately, we get a lot to wrap our heads around.
1. The death of Jacob/The rise of The Man in Black
"I guess you found your loophole." - Jacob
Anyone who is anyone knew right off when he returned to life on the Island that there was something wrong with John Locke. He was more confident, too confident. I felt what Sawyer says later on, "Locke was scared, even when he was pretending he wasn't." The thought occured that maybe he had some kind of knowledge from whatever afterlife awaited in him and total confidence in every action he took. But when he revealed his plan to kill Jacob, I knew he was way too different. Locke and Ben arrive at what's left of the Egyptian Statue and enter it to meet and Jacob and kill him, unbeknownest to Richard and The Others. Outside, a group of Jacob's bodyguards arrive and open up a box they've hauled around for awhile. Inside is revealed to be a body. John Locke's body. While everyone outside just looks in horror. Ben and the man posing as Locke greet a disappointed looking Jacob. "Locke" and Jacob makes it pretty clear they know each other. It becomes apparent that this man is actually The Man in Black from Jacob's first flashback. He has taken the appearance of John Locke to get to him and used Locke to manipulate everyone, especially the very confused Ben. Jacob tries to persuade Ben to leave and let them talk. Then Ben gives a very emotional speech of how he spent the majority of his life on the Island doing Jacob's bidding and was never allowed to see him. He demands to know why Locke was so much more special, he asks: "What about me?!" Jacob, sadly fatalistic, asks back, almost as if to test him: "What about you?" After the shock wears off, Ben furiously stabs him. Jacob falls over dying and whispers to The Man in Black: "They're coming." After a moment of alarm, The Man in Black kicks Jacob into the fire and watches him burn. Now that is a great cliffhanger. I'm still not quite sure "who" is coming, maybe the castaways from the past. This whole thing here just gave me a lot to look forward to. Especially some elaboration on the new antagonist, the man evil enough to take the shape of my fav character. The Man in Black.
But that's a story for the next chapter in my top Lost moments. Thanks for reading.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Lost: Stephen King connection
"Things fall apart. The center does not hold." - William Butler Yeats
You know who loves Lost? Stephen King. The master of horror himself is a die hard fan. And I bet he gets a chuckle every time he and his work are mentioned on it (Juliet's favorite book: Carrie; "Henry Gale" asks for King instead of Dostoevsky.) Another thing about Lost that many have found is that it takes a lot of the same elements as King's two biggest epics: The Stand and The Dark Tower. These connections are no more clear than they are now in the Sixth season. Now I won't go into too much detail about either seeing as how I only saw the TV-movie version of The Stand (I plan on reading the book) and am in the middle of the reading the Dark Tower series. But what I do know about each I will elaborate on.
The series begins with the main character Roland hunting his nemesis, a devilish sorceror he calls "the man in black." He hunts him in the hopes that the man in black will lead him to the legendary Dark Tower, where, as far as I can tell right now, all meaning in all the universe lies. I see Roland and the man in black can be seen as Jacob and The Man in Black. Roland and the man in black have been enemies for too long and have participated in a deadly game of tag; Jacob and The Man in Black are eternal rivals who are bound together by fate it would seem to compete in their own childlike game of "I'm right-you're wrong." There is probably a better way to find a link between these duos but I can't see it just yet. The Dark Tower itself, referred to as the nexus where all worlds meet, is somewhat similar to the Island.
In Lost, there is usually a specific group of people who go off exploring the unknown on the Island (fans call this group "The A Team." Part of the Dark Tower involves the gunslinger Roland to find companions throughout his journey, a group called a Ka-Tet (Ka meaning destiny). Roland seems like he could be a composite of Island leaders Jack and Locke, seeing as how he is battle savvy outdoorsman who can quickly react and get out of a situation fast and do what he believes is necessary. Not to mention Roland's life has been all about finding the Tower, like Locke's has been to serve the Island. Eddie Dean, the recovering drug addict, reminds me at times of Sawyer(wisecracking and smart despite appearances), Jack (no nonsense type personality), and Charlie (good humoured and recovering heroin addict.) Susannah Dean is a brave woman which I guess you could attribute to any female Lost character (I think Susannah was specifically created in the image of '70s Pam Grier, but a schizoid as well.) Then Jake Chambers, a boy who has a close relationship with the leader Roland, obviously parallels Walt and his friendship with Locke. Also Jake befriends a fictional animal, called a billy bumbler, named Oy, who is like Vincent except a bit more valiant.
In addition to the story, the characters frequently flashback to past times in their lives that have significance to their current problems. The theme of destiny or predeterminism is prevalent. In the world the characters journey through the laws of physics and many other things do not apply like they would in our world, like the Island.
I will definitely read the rest of the series and decide for myself how similar it is to Lost, but I would already recommend reading The Dark Tower if you are looking for a series.
THE STAND
The Stand takes place in an apocalyptic setting, where a biological weapon is released and kills nearly everyone on the planet. With the world in peril, the supernatural forces of good and evil make their plays = two players, two sides. Many good people are led to the side of the kind and righteous Mother Abigail Freemantle while the bad are drawn to the side of the scheming and demonic Randall Flagg. The forces of each side begin to prepare for a battle that will decide the fate of everything. Sound familiar?
The events of the book are a lot like Lost's. The good guys, who come from all walks of life, are brought together not only through the global castastrophe they survived, but also through shared dreams of Mother Abigail. This is a lot like the Lost castaways being brought together seemingly by a plane crash, but most were really led to their destination by the will of the mysterious Jacob. After they are united, the survivors make a home for themselves in a little Colorado suburb, like the castaways made their home on the Island's beach. Eventually, the group realizes that they will have to make a stand against those who have been led astray by the villain Randall Flagg. The castaways made a stand against The Others in season 3 and are more than likely drawing towards their new fight against The Man in Black in the last season. The leader of the good, Mother Abagail, soon dies like Lost's Jacob. After she dies, it is revealed that Nick Andros, a wise deaf-mute, was originally supposed to lead the stand against Flagg and his group; kind of like John Locke being murdered when he is the first in line to replace Jacob as protector of the Island. Also near the end of the story, Flagg's righthand man Lloyd is faced with the choice of doing the greater good and killing Flagg or killing Glen, one of those to make the stand for good. Under pressure due to all that's happened to him, Lloyd kills Glen. This sequence reminded me of the scene where The Man in Black has brought Ben to the statue to kill Jacob, Jacob tries to persuade Ben to not go through with it, but Ben does it in the end. Oh yeah, and the final resolution comes in the form of a nuclear explosion: a psychotic Flagg follower, Trashcan Man, brings a nuke to Las Vegas where Flagg and all of his followers have congregated. With all of this set in motion "the Hand of God" literally reaches down and detonates the bomb, killing all of the villains and sacrificing a few of the heroes. This is another parallel to the season 5 finale.
The biggest Stand connection to me, however, is Randall Flagg. Before we meet him people give him nicknames such as "The walking dude", "The man with no face or "The man in black." Randall Flagg is in fact the same Man in Black from The Dark Tower series, where he also goes by Walter O'Dim and Richard Fannin. Despite what I originally thought, Flagg is not Satan. He may not even be a demon. The most I know about him really is that he is a wizard of sorts with many dark agendas. Most of the time he, looks like an average looking man dressed in cowboy boots, a jean jacket, and wears "smiley" buttons, though in The Dark Tower he is seen in a black cloak (hence his famous nickname). Flagg is a sly, arrogant, malicious manipulator. He is a very persuasive person, and often promises what people want most to put them in his debt. He has been shown to bring people from the dead and predict the future. It is assumed that he can appear in many forms, most notably a crow or a horrific demon-like form. He is however, not all powerful and is easily hurt (he might just break down if you insult him too badly.) But when their was some more coverage on The Man in Black in season 6, Flagg was the first thing that came to my mind. They are both manipulators, with powers that are limited but still dangerous, and are banding together their own groups of people to meet their ends. The only difference is, the Lost Man in Black seems a bit more convincing (that doesn't mean I believe him) than Flagg, one look at Flagg and you know he has tricks up his sleeve. Season 6, more than anything, resembles The Stand.
All of this is not criticism. I think it is cool. People have often been able to find a connection between the show and any piece of literature that has appeared on it. This is just stuff that I have found. With The Stand/Dark Tower-esque turn for the final season, I am even more excited as it might tell me that everything that is happening is leading up to one last stand on the Island that will decide everything.
Thanks for reading.
You know who loves Lost? Stephen King. The master of horror himself is a die hard fan. And I bet he gets a chuckle every time he and his work are mentioned on it (Juliet's favorite book: Carrie; "Henry Gale" asks for King instead of Dostoevsky.) Another thing about Lost that many have found is that it takes a lot of the same elements as King's two biggest epics: The Stand and The Dark Tower. These connections are no more clear than they are now in the Sixth season. Now I won't go into too much detail about either seeing as how I only saw the TV-movie version of The Stand (I plan on reading the book) and am in the middle of the reading the Dark Tower series. But what I do know about each I will elaborate on.
SPOILERS, SERIOUSLY!!!
THE DARK TOWER...so far:The series begins with the main character Roland hunting his nemesis, a devilish sorceror he calls "the man in black." He hunts him in the hopes that the man in black will lead him to the legendary Dark Tower, where, as far as I can tell right now, all meaning in all the universe lies. I see Roland and the man in black can be seen as Jacob and The Man in Black. Roland and the man in black have been enemies for too long and have participated in a deadly game of tag; Jacob and The Man in Black are eternal rivals who are bound together by fate it would seem to compete in their own childlike game of "I'm right-you're wrong." There is probably a better way to find a link between these duos but I can't see it just yet. The Dark Tower itself, referred to as the nexus where all worlds meet, is somewhat similar to the Island.
In Lost, there is usually a specific group of people who go off exploring the unknown on the Island (fans call this group "The A Team." Part of the Dark Tower involves the gunslinger Roland to find companions throughout his journey, a group called a Ka-Tet (Ka meaning destiny). Roland seems like he could be a composite of Island leaders Jack and Locke, seeing as how he is battle savvy outdoorsman who can quickly react and get out of a situation fast and do what he believes is necessary. Not to mention Roland's life has been all about finding the Tower, like Locke's has been to serve the Island. Eddie Dean, the recovering drug addict, reminds me at times of Sawyer(wisecracking and smart despite appearances), Jack (no nonsense type personality), and Charlie (good humoured and recovering heroin addict.) Susannah Dean is a brave woman which I guess you could attribute to any female Lost character (I think Susannah was specifically created in the image of '70s Pam Grier, but a schizoid as well.) Then Jake Chambers, a boy who has a close relationship with the leader Roland, obviously parallels Walt and his friendship with Locke. Also Jake befriends a fictional animal, called a billy bumbler, named Oy, who is like Vincent except a bit more valiant.
In addition to the story, the characters frequently flashback to past times in their lives that have significance to their current problems. The theme of destiny or predeterminism is prevalent. In the world the characters journey through the laws of physics and many other things do not apply like they would in our world, like the Island.
I will definitely read the rest of the series and decide for myself how similar it is to Lost, but I would already recommend reading The Dark Tower if you are looking for a series.
THE STAND
The Stand takes place in an apocalyptic setting, where a biological weapon is released and kills nearly everyone on the planet. With the world in peril, the supernatural forces of good and evil make their plays = two players, two sides. Many good people are led to the side of the kind and righteous Mother Abigail Freemantle while the bad are drawn to the side of the scheming and demonic Randall Flagg. The forces of each side begin to prepare for a battle that will decide the fate of everything. Sound familiar?
The events of the book are a lot like Lost's. The good guys, who come from all walks of life, are brought together not only through the global castastrophe they survived, but also through shared dreams of Mother Abigail. This is a lot like the Lost castaways being brought together seemingly by a plane crash, but most were really led to their destination by the will of the mysterious Jacob. After they are united, the survivors make a home for themselves in a little Colorado suburb, like the castaways made their home on the Island's beach. Eventually, the group realizes that they will have to make a stand against those who have been led astray by the villain Randall Flagg. The castaways made a stand against The Others in season 3 and are more than likely drawing towards their new fight against The Man in Black in the last season. The leader of the good, Mother Abagail, soon dies like Lost's Jacob. After she dies, it is revealed that Nick Andros, a wise deaf-mute, was originally supposed to lead the stand against Flagg and his group; kind of like John Locke being murdered when he is the first in line to replace Jacob as protector of the Island. Also near the end of the story, Flagg's righthand man Lloyd is faced with the choice of doing the greater good and killing Flagg or killing Glen, one of those to make the stand for good. Under pressure due to all that's happened to him, Lloyd kills Glen. This sequence reminded me of the scene where The Man in Black has brought Ben to the statue to kill Jacob, Jacob tries to persuade Ben to not go through with it, but Ben does it in the end. Oh yeah, and the final resolution comes in the form of a nuclear explosion: a psychotic Flagg follower, Trashcan Man, brings a nuke to Las Vegas where Flagg and all of his followers have congregated. With all of this set in motion "the Hand of God" literally reaches down and detonates the bomb, killing all of the villains and sacrificing a few of the heroes. This is another parallel to the season 5 finale.
The biggest Stand connection to me, however, is Randall Flagg. Before we meet him people give him nicknames such as "The walking dude", "The man with no face or "The man in black." Randall Flagg is in fact the same Man in Black from The Dark Tower series, where he also goes by Walter O'Dim and Richard Fannin. Despite what I originally thought, Flagg is not Satan. He may not even be a demon. The most I know about him really is that he is a wizard of sorts with many dark agendas. Most of the time he, looks like an average looking man dressed in cowboy boots, a jean jacket, and wears "smiley" buttons, though in The Dark Tower he is seen in a black cloak (hence his famous nickname). Flagg is a sly, arrogant, malicious manipulator. He is a very persuasive person, and often promises what people want most to put them in his debt. He has been shown to bring people from the dead and predict the future. It is assumed that he can appear in many forms, most notably a crow or a horrific demon-like form. He is however, not all powerful and is easily hurt (he might just break down if you insult him too badly.) But when their was some more coverage on The Man in Black in season 6, Flagg was the first thing that came to my mind. They are both manipulators, with powers that are limited but still dangerous, and are banding together their own groups of people to meet their ends. The only difference is, the Lost Man in Black seems a bit more convincing (that doesn't mean I believe him) than Flagg, one look at Flagg and you know he has tricks up his sleeve. Season 6, more than anything, resembles The Stand.
All of this is not criticism. I think it is cool. People have often been able to find a connection between the show and any piece of literature that has appeared on it. This is just stuff that I have found. With The Stand/Dark Tower-esque turn for the final season, I am even more excited as it might tell me that everything that is happening is leading up to one last stand on the Island that will decide everything.
Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Lost: The Confidence Game
"Everyone's scared. And the thing they're scared of most is missing an opportunity." - Sawyer
A trend I've noticed throughout the Lost series is the confidence game. One of the first stories introduced is that of Sawyer, a brilliant con artist who became such during his hunt for an even smarter confidence man. The majority of Sawyer's flashback ordeals has to do with cons so cool and smart and complex that I'd swear they were written by David Mamet. None more superb is the episode in which he pulls "a long con" in both the past and the present, and both of which catch you totally off guard. Yep, the guy who at first came off as a cocky redneck with a dark past turned out to be something different: a cocky redneck with a dark past who could outsmart us and make us feel like total fools.
But cons were essential plot points in the backstories of other characters as well. Kate frequently conned people to get what she wanted (namely that bank robbery that was all for a freakin' toy.) And then of course there's Locke. Oh god, there was Locke. He, as usual, got the short end of the stick when it came to cons. Locke's life was destroyed by his father Anthony Cooper (aka Sawyer's life long prey), who manipulated his emotions, stole his kidney, made him feel worthless, ruined any chance he had at true love, and then pushed out of an eighth story window...in the words of Sawyer, son of a bitch!
Then in the future on the Island, cons were often pulled on friend and foe alike. Of course Sawyer did his fair share, but so did Ben and the Others, and even Locke himself to orchestrate the killing of his much hated father. Then we know recently the biggest con yet. The Man in Black's century stretched planning of killing his rival Jacob finally came full circle when he conned Ben Linus into doing it for him. Cons, cons, cons, cons, cons! What does all of this mean?
I could be very wrong, but maybe this repeated use of confidence scams is a metaphor. A way of telling us that there is a much bigger con going on here. The conning of the audience. Maybe whatever has happened and is happening on the show is just something that is leading us along, something that is building up momentum and getting our hopes up only to turn around and surprise with something that we never even considered. But what could it be? Could it be the Island is the small patch of purgatory between what could be heaven and what could be hell? Could it be that it is all figments of some polar bears imagination? Could it be that John Locke will be resurrected and deemed ruler of all things Island and possibly beyond? Could it be that I am just rambling like a nerd and my speculation is pointless as the show is already past the halfway point of its last season and all of the questions that have lingered for my four years of dedication to this show are being answered even as we speak? Yeah, probably. But still, how about that confidence game. I just thought it was interesting that that whole theme has gone on for so long in this show but has never really been addressed. Oh well, time will tell WHAT IT ALL MEANS, until then I will talk about other things that are just kind of interesting but don't contain much speculation as to how the show will end.
I really want to get to bed now, so I hoped you've enjoyed and goodnight. Oh yeah, and keep watching Lost and keep reading if you please.
A trend I've noticed throughout the Lost series is the confidence game. One of the first stories introduced is that of Sawyer, a brilliant con artist who became such during his hunt for an even smarter confidence man. The majority of Sawyer's flashback ordeals has to do with cons so cool and smart and complex that I'd swear they were written by David Mamet. None more superb is the episode in which he pulls "a long con" in both the past and the present, and both of which catch you totally off guard. Yep, the guy who at first came off as a cocky redneck with a dark past turned out to be something different: a cocky redneck with a dark past who could outsmart us and make us feel like total fools.
But cons were essential plot points in the backstories of other characters as well. Kate frequently conned people to get what she wanted (namely that bank robbery that was all for a freakin' toy.) And then of course there's Locke. Oh god, there was Locke. He, as usual, got the short end of the stick when it came to cons. Locke's life was destroyed by his father Anthony Cooper (aka Sawyer's life long prey), who manipulated his emotions, stole his kidney, made him feel worthless, ruined any chance he had at true love, and then pushed out of an eighth story window...in the words of Sawyer, son of a bitch!
Then in the future on the Island, cons were often pulled on friend and foe alike. Of course Sawyer did his fair share, but so did Ben and the Others, and even Locke himself to orchestrate the killing of his much hated father. Then we know recently the biggest con yet. The Man in Black's century stretched planning of killing his rival Jacob finally came full circle when he conned Ben Linus into doing it for him. Cons, cons, cons, cons, cons! What does all of this mean?
I could be very wrong, but maybe this repeated use of confidence scams is a metaphor. A way of telling us that there is a much bigger con going on here. The conning of the audience. Maybe whatever has happened and is happening on the show is just something that is leading us along, something that is building up momentum and getting our hopes up only to turn around and surprise with something that we never even considered. But what could it be? Could it be the Island is the small patch of purgatory between what could be heaven and what could be hell? Could it be that it is all figments of some polar bears imagination? Could it be that John Locke will be resurrected and deemed ruler of all things Island and possibly beyond? Could it be that I am just rambling like a nerd and my speculation is pointless as the show is already past the halfway point of its last season and all of the questions that have lingered for my four years of dedication to this show are being answered even as we speak? Yeah, probably. But still, how about that confidence game. I just thought it was interesting that that whole theme has gone on for so long in this show but has never really been addressed. Oh well, time will tell WHAT IT ALL MEANS, until then I will talk about other things that are just kind of interesting but don't contain much speculation as to how the show will end.
I really want to get to bed now, so I hoped you've enjoyed and goodnight. Oh yeah, and keep watching Lost and keep reading if you please.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Lost: Ben Linus/Linus van Pelt connection
"In all this world, there is no heavier burden than a great potential." - Linus van Pelt
Okay I won't pretend that I was a dedicated Charlie Brown and Peanuts fan because I was not. I didn't read the comic strip, and I only saw snippets of the show. I did however watch I good portion of the show's Halloween episode in school recently. The character that stood out most to me in particular was Linus van Pelt. Linus, one of, if not the youngest of the characters, was highly philosophical and intelligent despite the age handicap. That doesn't mean he wasn't childish in his own way too. He carried a blanket around with him a lot and made up The Great Pumpkin, sort of the Santa Claus of Halloween.
I had already watched the then five seasons of Lost by the time I watched this particular Halloween special. I couldn't help but find some sort of connection between Linus Van Pelt and Benjamin Linus, Lost's most diabolical anti-hero. Obviously I noticed they both had the name Linus. But they are also both extremely intelligent. Often times Linus would be the one to make revealtions for his friends that would make everything clear, something Ben would have to do too. I suppose the main similarity I saw though was The Great Pumpkin thing.
You see, Linus did more than just create The Great Pumpkin for kicks. He sort of made his own theology behind it, like it was some holy thing people could worship. Ben Linus did sort of the same thing with the Island's mysterious true ruler, "a great man" named Jacob. He claimed to be the only one who Jacob speaks to and united the Island's native inhabitants through their belief in him as well. There was a reversal in how this was seen by other people in either character's case: for Linus, no one believed him except for one person, Sally Brown, who believed out of her adoration for Linus; for Ben, just about everyone believed in him except for John Locke, who was convinced that Ben was the real person behind everything. Sally and Locke are similar however as they stick with either Linus to bare witness to their supposed deity. And for each pair of believers, their journies ended in disappointment. Linus and Sally waited all Halloween Night in a pumpkin patch waiting for The Great Pumpkin. Way late into the night, after all trick r' treaters had gone home, it never came and Sally was furious. Linus stubbornly assured her and himself that The Great Pumpkin would show up. Ben and Locke trekked all the way through the jungle and arrived at a cabin. There was nothing inside that Locke could see. Ben insisted that Jacob was sitting in a chair that appeared to be empty, going so far as to talk to the chair as if someone was there. Both Linus and Ben did not stop insisting that the mystical creature they believed was real. Both Sally and Locke suffered due to their humouring of their respective Linus: Sally missed out on trick r' treating and having fun with her friends, and Locke got shot and left to die in a ditch. Both of these stubborn believers came out looking like real "blockheads."
Also about Linus and his security blanket, Ben has something like a blanket that he relies on to "protect him" in cases when he can't do it with his own intelligence. Ben is revealed at some point that he can call upon The Monster, the pillar of black smoke. Linus at times uses his blanket as a weapon and the blanket is often thought of as it's own active entity. Ben uses The Monster to attack a group of mercenaries contracted to capture him and The Monster is definitely an active entity. Hmm...
I just thought it over after awhile, and realized that the connection between these two goes deeper than their name. It was kind of interesting.
This has been the first of a few Lost analysis' I have in the works, from Your Modest Guru. Thanks for reading.
Okay I won't pretend that I was a dedicated Charlie Brown and Peanuts fan because I was not. I didn't read the comic strip, and I only saw snippets of the show. I did however watch I good portion of the show's Halloween episode in school recently. The character that stood out most to me in particular was Linus van Pelt. Linus, one of, if not the youngest of the characters, was highly philosophical and intelligent despite the age handicap. That doesn't mean he wasn't childish in his own way too. He carried a blanket around with him a lot and made up The Great Pumpkin, sort of the Santa Claus of Halloween.
I had already watched the then five seasons of Lost by the time I watched this particular Halloween special. I couldn't help but find some sort of connection between Linus Van Pelt and Benjamin Linus, Lost's most diabolical anti-hero. Obviously I noticed they both had the name Linus. But they are also both extremely intelligent. Often times Linus would be the one to make revealtions for his friends that would make everything clear, something Ben would have to do too. I suppose the main similarity I saw though was The Great Pumpkin thing.
You see, Linus did more than just create The Great Pumpkin for kicks. He sort of made his own theology behind it, like it was some holy thing people could worship. Ben Linus did sort of the same thing with the Island's mysterious true ruler, "a great man" named Jacob. He claimed to be the only one who Jacob speaks to and united the Island's native inhabitants through their belief in him as well. There was a reversal in how this was seen by other people in either character's case: for Linus, no one believed him except for one person, Sally Brown, who believed out of her adoration for Linus; for Ben, just about everyone believed in him except for John Locke, who was convinced that Ben was the real person behind everything. Sally and Locke are similar however as they stick with either Linus to bare witness to their supposed deity. And for each pair of believers, their journies ended in disappointment. Linus and Sally waited all Halloween Night in a pumpkin patch waiting for The Great Pumpkin. Way late into the night, after all trick r' treaters had gone home, it never came and Sally was furious. Linus stubbornly assured her and himself that The Great Pumpkin would show up. Ben and Locke trekked all the way through the jungle and arrived at a cabin. There was nothing inside that Locke could see. Ben insisted that Jacob was sitting in a chair that appeared to be empty, going so far as to talk to the chair as if someone was there. Both Linus and Ben did not stop insisting that the mystical creature they believed was real. Both Sally and Locke suffered due to their humouring of their respective Linus: Sally missed out on trick r' treating and having fun with her friends, and Locke got shot and left to die in a ditch. Both of these stubborn believers came out looking like real "blockheads."
Also about Linus and his security blanket, Ben has something like a blanket that he relies on to "protect him" in cases when he can't do it with his own intelligence. Ben is revealed at some point that he can call upon The Monster, the pillar of black smoke. Linus at times uses his blanket as a weapon and the blanket is often thought of as it's own active entity. Ben uses The Monster to attack a group of mercenaries contracted to capture him and The Monster is definitely an active entity. Hmm...
I just thought it over after awhile, and realized that the connection between these two goes deeper than their name. It was kind of interesting.
This has been the first of a few Lost analysis' I have in the works, from Your Modest Guru. Thanks for reading.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
LHC: or how I learned to worry more and question science
"Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool." - Richard Dawkins
Now in 2008, scientists started going on about the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Apparently this thing will revolutionize science itself by answering questions that have mind boggled the world's greatest physicists since ever. It was supposed to be up and running in 08 but there was some kind of hiccup and operations were on hold for awhile. But as I hear, only a few days ago the LHC's particle beams actually started colliding and I guess everything's all right. And why wouldn't everything be? Well that's what this post is about.
Your Modest Guru will talk about the greatly popularized theory that the LHC could possibly result in a black hole that would start small, but grow and than eventually engulf the world and maybe even the galaxy. Yeah, even the possibility of that two years prior put me on edge about this thing. I mean really, if there was even a chance of that happening, why would we take it. If I thought that something like that could happen, I'd dig a hole about fifty feet in the desert, drop the thing in, bury it, and never speak of it again. I know this thing could possibly answer questions some the greatest mysteries of the universe. That is enticing, but it is also very iffy. I mean on one hand we can discover so much more about life itself and perhaps go further as a species and on the other hand we could destroy everything and negate everything that happened since the beginning of the...well, everything. Hmm. Thankfully a decision of that magnitude is not in my hands. But like I said, the thing is actually working now and so far everything is fine. Hopefully it stays that way because, really, nobody wants to be stretched to longest point in the most painful way possible whilst swirling around in a freakin' black hole.
This has been a scientific discussion from Your Modest Guru. Thanks for reading.
Now in 2008, scientists started going on about the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Apparently this thing will revolutionize science itself by answering questions that have mind boggled the world's greatest physicists since ever. It was supposed to be up and running in 08 but there was some kind of hiccup and operations were on hold for awhile. But as I hear, only a few days ago the LHC's particle beams actually started colliding and I guess everything's all right. And why wouldn't everything be? Well that's what this post is about.
Your Modest Guru will talk about the greatly popularized theory that the LHC could possibly result in a black hole that would start small, but grow and than eventually engulf the world and maybe even the galaxy. Yeah, even the possibility of that two years prior put me on edge about this thing. I mean really, if there was even a chance of that happening, why would we take it. If I thought that something like that could happen, I'd dig a hole about fifty feet in the desert, drop the thing in, bury it, and never speak of it again. I know this thing could possibly answer questions some the greatest mysteries of the universe. That is enticing, but it is also very iffy. I mean on one hand we can discover so much more about life itself and perhaps go further as a species and on the other hand we could destroy everything and negate everything that happened since the beginning of the...well, everything. Hmm. Thankfully a decision of that magnitude is not in my hands. But like I said, the thing is actually working now and so far everything is fine. Hopefully it stays that way because, really, nobody wants to be stretched to longest point in the most painful way possible whilst swirling around in a freakin' black hole.
This has been a scientific discussion from Your Modest Guru. Thanks for reading.
Lost: Season 3 Missed Moment
When going back and forth through the vast story that is Lost to choose the specific favorite moments, even the most godly of bloggers can get confused or can miss something along the way. He might miss even one of his favorite moments of the show as a whole. And that is what I did when picking out my favorite moments from season 3. So I apologize for taking us aback and I present the true # 4 Moment of Season 3:
SPOILERS!!!
Sawyer meets "Mr. Sawyer"
"Keep reading." - Sawyer
During his time with the Others, John Locke was introduced to his test. His father, Anthony Cooper. The elderly con artist who manipulated Locke, stole his kidney, paralyzed him, and destroyed his life. Ben told Locke he would have to kill Cooper in order to become an Other. Locke couldn't bring himself to do it. Richard Alpert reveals that Ben knew he wouldn't and did this just to humiliate Locke. Since Locke can't do it himself, Richard proposes someone else. Our own resident con artist and murderer, Sawyer. Locke tells him he captured Ben and kept him in the Black Rock out in the jungle. Sawyer goes along reluctantly. When they get there and Sawyer realizes the man tied up in the brig isn't Ben, Locke locks him inside. The cruel Cooper goes on to detail with a guilty grin what he did to his son. As soon as Sawyer hears the word "con" he begins to get suspicious. He then asks Cooper his name. He tells him a series of fake names and one of them is Tom Sawyer. Sawyer realizes who he is talking to. The man he thought he killed in Australia. The man who conned and destroyed his family. The man he has been hunting his whole life. Mr. Sawyer. Sawyer pulls out the letter he wrote to his nemesis as a kid and gives it to Cooper, who doesn't take it seriously and even mocks him. Sawyer demands that he finish the letter, but the bastard tears it apart. Sawyer loses it. He strangles Cooper with the chains of long dead slaves. He sends to him hell. Locke opens the door, looks down at his dead father indifferently (like a dog he has been meaning to put down), and thanks Sawyer. I loved this scene, because it is one where a mystery is solved, one that goes back since the very first episodes of the show. Many people had suspected Anthony Cooper of being 'Mr. Sawyer', myself included, but it was still a surprise here. This scene is also so great because this one death brings closure to two characters' arcs: Sawyer's dedication to revenge and Locke's inability to forget his past. I'd go so far as to call this moment bittersweet. I hated Cooper ever since he conned Locke in season 1. I won't lie, I was thanking Sawyer too when he killed him. Great scene, wish I had remembered to put it on the list.
More Lost posts to come, thanks for reading.
SPOILERS!!!
Sawyer meets "Mr. Sawyer"
"Keep reading." - Sawyer
During his time with the Others, John Locke was introduced to his test. His father, Anthony Cooper. The elderly con artist who manipulated Locke, stole his kidney, paralyzed him, and destroyed his life. Ben told Locke he would have to kill Cooper in order to become an Other. Locke couldn't bring himself to do it. Richard Alpert reveals that Ben knew he wouldn't and did this just to humiliate Locke. Since Locke can't do it himself, Richard proposes someone else. Our own resident con artist and murderer, Sawyer. Locke tells him he captured Ben and kept him in the Black Rock out in the jungle. Sawyer goes along reluctantly. When they get there and Sawyer realizes the man tied up in the brig isn't Ben, Locke locks him inside. The cruel Cooper goes on to detail with a guilty grin what he did to his son. As soon as Sawyer hears the word "con" he begins to get suspicious. He then asks Cooper his name. He tells him a series of fake names and one of them is Tom Sawyer. Sawyer realizes who he is talking to. The man he thought he killed in Australia. The man who conned and destroyed his family. The man he has been hunting his whole life. Mr. Sawyer. Sawyer pulls out the letter he wrote to his nemesis as a kid and gives it to Cooper, who doesn't take it seriously and even mocks him. Sawyer demands that he finish the letter, but the bastard tears it apart. Sawyer loses it. He strangles Cooper with the chains of long dead slaves. He sends to him hell. Locke opens the door, looks down at his dead father indifferently (like a dog he has been meaning to put down), and thanks Sawyer. I loved this scene, because it is one where a mystery is solved, one that goes back since the very first episodes of the show. Many people had suspected Anthony Cooper of being 'Mr. Sawyer', myself included, but it was still a surprise here. This scene is also so great because this one death brings closure to two characters' arcs: Sawyer's dedication to revenge and Locke's inability to forget his past. I'd go so far as to call this moment bittersweet. I hated Cooper ever since he conned Locke in season 1. I won't lie, I was thanking Sawyer too when he killed him. Great scene, wish I had remembered to put it on the list.
More Lost posts to come, thanks for reading.
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