The Black Rock is washed ashore due to a typhoon, same typhoon that collapsed the ancient four-toed statute. With no means of escaping the island (think mutiny on the bounty and Pitcairn Island) a new community is formed. The original slaves revolted at some point and locked what remained of their original captors in their old ship to die.
Nothing out of the ordinary will happen for quite some time. This small thriving community eventually discovers the ancient runes and structures and studies them. While not able to glean much information, what little they do learn seems to pertain to time travel. It is assumed to be a fancy story tale from ages past and is incorporated into the culture of the islanders, even told as bedtime stories to each subsequent generation.
The islanders are quite happy to be left alone, but one day the US shows up thinking the island is uninhabited and plans a nuclear test there. The natives quickly realize what is about to happen and kill the interlopers to save their island and themselves.
Then, out of nowhere, some new folks appear on the island...
3 of the descendants of the black rock crew, all of whom are quite familiar with the "bedtime stories" of time travel from the ancient culture they grew up around are suddenly being told by these new-newcomers that they are travelers from the future. Of course Richard, Ellie and Widmore are ready to dismiss this as just another attempt by the US to seize their island, until Locke gives Richard the compass.
That compass is more important to the mythology of the show than most viewers realize. Everyone (including Locke) expects that Locke is simply "returning" Richard's compass which he will give him in the future, thus "proving" to Richard that Locke is who he says he is. If this was indeed Richard's compass, the first thing he would have done when Locke handed him it is compare it to the one he currently has in his possession. Of course Richard has no such compass on him. What actually happened here is Locke was played by future Richard into what amounts as the delivery of stolen goods, except Richard knowing that Locke would come back to meet him in 1954 decided there would be no better place to hide the compass from it's rightful? owner than in the past. The line, "I gave you this?!?" from Richard is delivered incredulously. But it’s not that he will someday give Locke "his" compass, but that he will someday be in possession of it at all, and determine to send it to himsel! f in the past.
So we have 3 people (2 of whom are probably working together Ellie and Richard) who are now aware that their bedtime stories are in fact quite real, and that at some point in the future more interlopers will show up on their island and develop a time-machine. Knowing this will happen before it all happens puts them in a unique position, but they disagree on what to do with the information. This sets up a "game" that is played not on a chess board or backgammon board, but with "time" as the field of play. Think back to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure where the missing keys are actually stolen by a future version of Bill/Ted and placed for their past selves to find at a crucial time. Knowing that they will one day have control over this time machine means they can start playing that game immediately, and see real payoffs. "In the future, I will come to this exact location and place a gun under this rock." Bang, under the rock is the gun waiting to be found. If two opposing! factions are aware of this power, and begin to try and outwit each other via time one very important consequence happens... each side will do everything in their power to keep "their" timeline consistent. To the pawns in this game, it will appear as if time is course-correcting itself when in actuality it is the two "players" who are continually fending off each others moves by restoring and undoing each others' time-line changes. (One player might need Des to show up to the island, the other needs Des to stay the frak away, so a "time" based battle ensues.)
So we have two powers who are now vying for control over the island and the time-travel powers "prior" to the actual time-travel device being found/built/whatever. (not important) Richard probably wants to use it to keep the island secret from the outside world, and Widmore would rather use it to gain power in the rest of the world. This epic battle is what is playing out on Lost.
But why the compass? The deadpan response from Richard, "it points north" is also very important. As we know all other compasses on the island seem to have difficulty doing just that. Perhaps our earlier generations of black rock descendants all tried (and failed) to get off the island via homebuilt rafts or canoes. They too may have sailed out only to find themselves right back home like Desmond in the Elizabeth. But a special compass, one that for whatever reason isn't affected by the islands magnetic properties (maybe its needle is made from that "exotic" matter), that points north could then allow our black rock descendants to finally chart a course back to the rest of the world.
Dharma found the compass in the wheel chamber. Richard had Ben steal it from Dharma and via John Locke was able to get it personally delivered to the distant past. (Knowing you have the opportunity to make a temporal delivery, you’d likely decide to deliver Gray’s Sports Almanac or something equally valuable) Knowing that no compass works, and then being handed the only working compass on the island by a stranger claiming to be from the future triggers the "game" being played out now between Alpert and Widmore. Now able to leave the island, the game spills over into the rest of the world causing the very odd "sequence" of events that subsequently takes place for the next half century.
But why doesn't Richard age? His longevity and the "sickness" are the same thing. Rousseau made it very clear that whatever the "sickness" is, it is very important that it wasn't spread into the outside world. Imagine what would happen if everyone on the planet suddenly contracted something that caused them to stop aging. It would be great for about a day, until everyone realized that the extreme lack of resources for an unchecked exponential population growth would probably be the "end of days" predicted by Valenzetti’s equation. We'd all start killing each other the next day. At some point (I suspect after 1954 and pre-dharma) the originals were re-exploring and reexamining the ancient structures that were only thought of as bedtime stories until Locke showed up. Someone figured out that the ancients weren't talking about time travel, but time-extension. Namely their own. Unfortunately, activating the "sickness" that stops ageing also came with it's own consequence, smo! ky. Because those who are not enslaved by time and space can amass power far beyond what a typical human can garner, the ancients also created Smokey to check whomever discovered that power, even millennia later. We may never understand how Smokey and the life extension sickness work (being built by a long dead civilization probably killed by their own technology). We can see the big picture of the game that is playing out beyond dharma or hanso... between two very capable adversaries who have pondered the nature of time since they were little children on their secluded island. Adam and Eve? Alpert and Ellie. Jacob? Widmore. Both are living in their own Schrodinger death boxes, just waiting to see if they are alive or dead when the game is over. Theory by SafariShane
Nothing out of the ordinary will happen for quite some time. This small thriving community eventually discovers the ancient runes and structures and studies them. While not able to glean much information, what little they do learn seems to pertain to time travel. It is assumed to be a fancy story tale from ages past and is incorporated into the culture of the islanders, even told as bedtime stories to each subsequent generation.
The islanders are quite happy to be left alone, but one day the US shows up thinking the island is uninhabited and plans a nuclear test there. The natives quickly realize what is about to happen and kill the interlopers to save their island and themselves.
Then, out of nowhere, some new folks appear on the island...
3 of the descendants of the black rock crew, all of whom are quite familiar with the "bedtime stories" of time travel from the ancient culture they grew up around are suddenly being told by these new-newcomers that they are travelers from the future. Of course Richard, Ellie and Widmore are ready to dismiss this as just another attempt by the US to seize their island, until Locke gives Richard the compass.
That compass is more important to the mythology of the show than most viewers realize. Everyone (including Locke) expects that Locke is simply "returning" Richard's compass which he will give him in the future, thus "proving" to Richard that Locke is who he says he is. If this was indeed Richard's compass, the first thing he would have done when Locke handed him it is compare it to the one he currently has in his possession. Of course Richard has no such compass on him. What actually happened here is Locke was played by future Richard into what amounts as the delivery of stolen goods, except Richard knowing that Locke would come back to meet him in 1954 decided there would be no better place to hide the compass from it's rightful? owner than in the past. The line, "I gave you this?!?" from Richard is delivered incredulously. But it’s not that he will someday give Locke "his" compass, but that he will someday be in possession of it at all, and determine to send it to himsel! f in the past.
So we have 3 people (2 of whom are probably working together Ellie and Richard) who are now aware that their bedtime stories are in fact quite real, and that at some point in the future more interlopers will show up on their island and develop a time-machine. Knowing this will happen before it all happens puts them in a unique position, but they disagree on what to do with the information. This sets up a "game" that is played not on a chess board or backgammon board, but with "time" as the field of play. Think back to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure where the missing keys are actually stolen by a future version of Bill/Ted and placed for their past selves to find at a crucial time. Knowing that they will one day have control over this time machine means they can start playing that game immediately, and see real payoffs. "In the future, I will come to this exact location and place a gun under this rock." Bang, under the rock is the gun waiting to be found. If two opposing! factions are aware of this power, and begin to try and outwit each other via time one very important consequence happens... each side will do everything in their power to keep "their" timeline consistent. To the pawns in this game, it will appear as if time is course-correcting itself when in actuality it is the two "players" who are continually fending off each others moves by restoring and undoing each others' time-line changes. (One player might need Des to show up to the island, the other needs Des to stay the frak away, so a "time" based battle ensues.)
So we have two powers who are now vying for control over the island and the time-travel powers "prior" to the actual time-travel device being found/built/whatever. (not important) Richard probably wants to use it to keep the island secret from the outside world, and Widmore would rather use it to gain power in the rest of the world. This epic battle is what is playing out on Lost.
But why the compass? The deadpan response from Richard, "it points north" is also very important. As we know all other compasses on the island seem to have difficulty doing just that. Perhaps our earlier generations of black rock descendants all tried (and failed) to get off the island via homebuilt rafts or canoes. They too may have sailed out only to find themselves right back home like Desmond in the Elizabeth. But a special compass, one that for whatever reason isn't affected by the islands magnetic properties (maybe its needle is made from that "exotic" matter), that points north could then allow our black rock descendants to finally chart a course back to the rest of the world.
Dharma found the compass in the wheel chamber. Richard had Ben steal it from Dharma and via John Locke was able to get it personally delivered to the distant past. (Knowing you have the opportunity to make a temporal delivery, you’d likely decide to deliver Gray’s Sports Almanac or something equally valuable) Knowing that no compass works, and then being handed the only working compass on the island by a stranger claiming to be from the future triggers the "game" being played out now between Alpert and Widmore. Now able to leave the island, the game spills over into the rest of the world causing the very odd "sequence" of events that subsequently takes place for the next half century.
But why doesn't Richard age? His longevity and the "sickness" are the same thing. Rousseau made it very clear that whatever the "sickness" is, it is very important that it wasn't spread into the outside world. Imagine what would happen if everyone on the planet suddenly contracted something that caused them to stop aging. It would be great for about a day, until everyone realized that the extreme lack of resources for an unchecked exponential population growth would probably be the "end of days" predicted by Valenzetti’s equation. We'd all start killing each other the next day. At some point (I suspect after 1954 and pre-dharma) the originals were re-exploring and reexamining the ancient structures that were only thought of as bedtime stories until Locke showed up. Someone figured out that the ancients weren't talking about time travel, but time-extension. Namely their own. Unfortunately, activating the "sickness" that stops ageing also came with it's own consequence, smo! ky. Because those who are not enslaved by time and space can amass power far beyond what a typical human can garner, the ancients also created Smokey to check whomever discovered that power, even millennia later. We may never understand how Smokey and the life extension sickness work (being built by a long dead civilization probably killed by their own technology). We can see the big picture of the game that is playing out beyond dharma or hanso... between two very capable adversaries who have pondered the nature of time since they were little children on their secluded island. Adam and Eve? Alpert and Ellie. Jacob? Widmore. Both are living in their own Schrodinger death boxes, just waiting to see if they are alive or dead when the game is over. Theory by SafariShane
