Protectors, Smoke Monsters and Rules by des_eternité

What I’m about to say here, revolves around a few subjects. First of all, I believe Mother is both smoke monster and protector. Yes, she was easily killed by MiB compared to all the trouble the Losties had to go through to kill MiB, but I’ve got a possible explanation for that, involving the rules. But first I’m about to say something about the why of Jacob.

In her life, Mother developed a big hatred towards human beings. Why that is, we can’t know. Maybe it was because of bad experiences with people herself, or perhaps just because her predecessor told her so (or brainwashed her with propaganda), just like Mother told MiB and Jacob bad things about people. This is why she killed Claudia and raised Jacob and MiB as her own. The only person she deemed suitable to become her replacement, is someone who never came into contact with human beings. Someone who never became corrupted by them.

MiB and Jacob were two very different people however. MiB already had a tendency towards “evil” when he was young, having no problems with lying to Mother. Jacob, on the other hand, already had a tendency towards “good”. He wasn’t able to lie. Mother herself also clearly had a tendency towards evil, since she had no problem killing people without remorse. Her beliefs rubbed off on MiB, who also became convinced that people were bad. Jacob though, because of his good nature, never really saw what was so wrong with people.

We all know what happened then. MiB ended up as the smoke monster, Jacob became the new protector. But, Jacob didn’t want to run things like his mother did. He didn’t think his eventual replacement needed to grow up in his special care, so that he would not get corrupted by humans. The people he brought to the island, all received a clean slate upon arrival by Jacob, a tabula rasa if you will. He was convinced that he’d find a worthy successor amongst them. Someone who grew up with humans, but who was genuinely good. And in the end, he found the perfect guy with Hurley, finally proving Mother and MiB wrong.

I thought it was strongly implied that Mother was a smoke monster as well. Question is, how did that happen? How could she be the protector and the monster at the same time? Perhaps she ended up as the protector of the island like Jacob did, being told to never go into the light. But after being stuck on the island, alone, she eventually got frustrated and decided to go down there and see for herself. Now here’s the difference between MiB and Mother. I believe MiB was already dead when he entered the light, while Mother was still very much alive. Case in point here is Jack. He went straight into the light, and it “spit” him out, but it wasn’t lethal. He died afterwards because of the stab. So why would contact with the light be lethal to MiB but not Jack? Because contact with the light doesn’t mean instant death.

So, Mother’s evil heart came into contact with the light and turned her into a smoke monster as well, BUT she still had her own body after being spit out by the light, since she was alive all the time. I say MiB died when Jacob threw him into a rock just before he entered the light. Now, you’ll say, that can’t be, cause Jacob and MiB couldn’t kill each other directly. But who made that rule? Mother did. We’ve already seen that the protector simply is able to make up his own rules, perhaps they get that ability by the drinking of source water. So when there’s another protector, there are other rules. I believe Mother’s rule that MiB and Jacob couldn’t kill each other, simply died with her. So, MiB came into contact with the light, but his body was already dead. His soul was still there though, cause his soul was about to become stuck on the island like Michael’s after killing his mom, and so his soul/spirit became the monster. Immediately afterwards, Jacob made his own rule that the MiB couldn’t kill him or any of his possible successors, and that as long as Jacob himself or one of his possible successors was alive, he couldn’t leave the island. Note that MiB says to Richard, that Jacob stole his humanity, not the island. Perhaps implying that Jacob killed him, and not the light.

So that could explain why MiB killed Mother so easily. Mother was a smoke monster, but still human. The MiB lost his smoke powers, when the cork was removed. He would’ve gotten back his powers had the cork been put back in before he was killed. Removing the cork and the light, also removed the smoke powers and the “magic” from the island. Instead of just being a spirit in a human body, MiB just became… a human body. Mother and MiB were both smoke monsters, but they were killed in totally different ways for totally diffferent reasons.

I’d also like to point out that I believe Claudia’s ghost was Mother herself, using her smoke powers. We know the monster can choose which people it appears to. The episode Dr. Linus proves that. MiB as Locke was talking to chained Ben, but Ilana couldn’t see him. Also worthy to note is that if Claudia’s ghost really was Claudia’s ghost, there was no point at all to her appearence. She didn’t say I love you. All she did was lead him to people he hated. And why should she not appear to her other son, her good son, Jacob? All she really said was “you’re special”, which is not coincidentally the exact same thing Mother always told MiB. I believe Mother orchestrated the whole thing, which is also why she thanked MiB when he killed her.