Thinking about the motivation of why all of the madness that has ensued since the crash of Oceanic 815 may have occurred, I think of the multiple leaders Jacob/the Island has adopted and subsequently rejected. We know that Ben comes into communion with the Island after being courted by Richard, and Locke (eventually) falls into the same leadership position, despite not being "ready" at earlier points in his life, according to Richard Alpert.
The childhood scenes between Locke and Richard/Mittelos Science make me think of Aaron, who is undoubtedly a central part of our beloved storyline. And the thought comes to mind: Aaron is just a baby or toddler in the present of the storyline, and of course would be too young to assume any sort of leadership role on the Island. However, if the Island moves back in time, say around 20-30 years into the past, and if Aaron somehow became part of THAT timeline, he would be in his 20s or 30s by the time the present-day events we have seen unfold in seasons 1-4 take place (if they even do occur after changes in past events). I know Aaron left the Island and did not travel back in time; I'll get to that point shortly.
In any case, this is a possible motivation for traveling back in time; so that Aaron can age enough to assume his leadership role at this time of crisis that leads to Widmore's men finding the Island.
Why, then, does the Island, in the form of Christian Shephard, want Aaron to be off the Island when it is moved ("He's where he's supposed to be.")? This is less clear, though it may have something to do with protecting the perceived Savior of the Island (Aaron) from harm's way in the upcoming assault by Keamy and his mercenaries. Since the course of events at the time of Christian's intervention (separating possibly-dead Claire from Aaron) has reached a point of no return in terms of the upcoming events, or because it is already known that the time to which the time travelers will go will be too dangerous for Aaron to be safe, the Island prefers to have him leave the Island and re-enter it at another time. It is also possible that Christian is aware of contingent events if Aaron is NOT on the boat before the turning of the Wheel, e.g. that Aaron would have found himself in the midst of one of the raids and perish. The only possible way to bring him to the past timeline,! then, would be for him to leave the Island (saving his life) and bring him back in time when the Oceanic 6 returns. It is worth noting that Jacob does not give Locke full disclosure at this point either, however, if any of this is correct; I say this (besides the obvious that Locke is somewhat clueless about a lot of things compared to Ben) because he does *not* want Jack and the rest of the Oceanic 6 to leave the Island.
It seems likely that the Oceanic 6 will end up joining the past timeline that the Left-Behinders most likely ended up in (I highly doubt that their reunion will be with a senile Sawyer), thus placing Aaron into the correct time period to have him be the boy Richard Alpert courts instead of Ben ("The Man Behind the Curtain"). Shout-out to one of the posters in the comments section on this site for suggesting that Aaron might see visions of his own mother as Ben did, because this set me on this train of thought. In this way, the Others (who may or may not also be the Hostiles) will this time around adopt the correct/destined leader, Aaron, instead of the temporary leader, Ben.
It seems that the Others adopt temporary leaders to stall while they wait for their intended leader. This occurred with Ben, as well as with Locke, so that Aaron could become the true leader. It does not mean that these are throw-away leaders; on the contrary, they are necessary steps on the path to planting Aaron in his rightful timeline and role.
Locke seems to have been recruited to make sure that Aaron and the rest of the Oceanic 6 do in fact return to the Island, hence his role as Jeremy Bentham. Once he had accomplished this role, the Island no longer protected him from death (as it may have when Ben shoots him in "The Man Behind the Curtain"), and he somehow dies.
Let's look at some evidence in support of this theory, as well as key moments regarding the issue at hand:
1) Claire's kidnapping: Ethan kidnaps Claire with the intention of abducting Aaron upon birth. At this stage in the storyline, the Swan implosion has not occurred and Jack has not yet called the freighter (the true turning point at which the Island's location was identified), so the Island is still safe from outside intruders. The plan here was probably to let time run its normal course until Aaron was old enough to assume his leadership position. However, once the Swan imploded and the phone call was placed, the course of events became more or less fixed (mercenaries infiltrating the Island, Claire possibly dying in the Barracks raid), leading up to the turning of the Wheel by Ben.
2) Aaron's family: The vast connections between the Island and many members of Aaron's family (Christian, Jack, Claire, Tom - at least with his painting in Widmore's office, if that is relevant) suggest that there is a greater conspiracy at work here. That Christian (Aaron's grandfather) becomes one of Jacob's spokesmen is significant. Interesting that Aaron's grandmother clearly recovers from her brain trauma (apparently without any permanent damage, either); this smacks of the Island's healing and protective powers, even off-Island (à la Michael).
3) Richard Malkin ("Raised by Another") emphasizes the crucial role Aaron is to play, and he is pivotal in Aaron being born on the Island since he purchases the plane tickets for Claire. He insists that she must take this flight and none other. I do not think it plausible to ignore the strong likelihood that he was working for Ben or Widmore or whomever; Malkin's actions and commitment to getting Claire on *that* flight would be otherwise very odd and unusual. It is also possible that he merely foresees Aaron's importance and the events that are contingent on his role as leader, and he therefore chooses to con Claire onto the plane. I think the former far more likely.
When history repeats itself, and Aaron is courted by Richard Alpert instead of Ben, history will begin to take a different course, and this can be seen as a course-correction of sorts on the fact that Ben should not have become the leader of the Others at this stage in history. With Aaron's leadership, a different course of events would lead to a very different outcome in terms of the Ben (or Jacob) vs. Widmore stand-off.
Who knows, Aaron replacing Ben may even negate John Locke's death (since he will no longer need to be recruited as an Island leader), though I think that the writers have said that they would not use this type of narrative technique. Hmmm....
Finally, I am interested in how Walt might fit into all of this. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!
Theory by Francisco
The childhood scenes between Locke and Richard/Mittelos Science make me think of Aaron, who is undoubtedly a central part of our beloved storyline. And the thought comes to mind: Aaron is just a baby or toddler in the present of the storyline, and of course would be too young to assume any sort of leadership role on the Island. However, if the Island moves back in time, say around 20-30 years into the past, and if Aaron somehow became part of THAT timeline, he would be in his 20s or 30s by the time the present-day events we have seen unfold in seasons 1-4 take place (if they even do occur after changes in past events). I know Aaron left the Island and did not travel back in time; I'll get to that point shortly.
In any case, this is a possible motivation for traveling back in time; so that Aaron can age enough to assume his leadership role at this time of crisis that leads to Widmore's men finding the Island.
Why, then, does the Island, in the form of Christian Shephard, want Aaron to be off the Island when it is moved ("He's where he's supposed to be.")? This is less clear, though it may have something to do with protecting the perceived Savior of the Island (Aaron) from harm's way in the upcoming assault by Keamy and his mercenaries. Since the course of events at the time of Christian's intervention (separating possibly-dead Claire from Aaron) has reached a point of no return in terms of the upcoming events, or because it is already known that the time to which the time travelers will go will be too dangerous for Aaron to be safe, the Island prefers to have him leave the Island and re-enter it at another time. It is also possible that Christian is aware of contingent events if Aaron is NOT on the boat before the turning of the Wheel, e.g. that Aaron would have found himself in the midst of one of the raids and perish. The only possible way to bring him to the past timeline,! then, would be for him to leave the Island (saving his life) and bring him back in time when the Oceanic 6 returns. It is worth noting that Jacob does not give Locke full disclosure at this point either, however, if any of this is correct; I say this (besides the obvious that Locke is somewhat clueless about a lot of things compared to Ben) because he does *not* want Jack and the rest of the Oceanic 6 to leave the Island.
It seems likely that the Oceanic 6 will end up joining the past timeline that the Left-Behinders most likely ended up in (I highly doubt that their reunion will be with a senile Sawyer), thus placing Aaron into the correct time period to have him be the boy Richard Alpert courts instead of Ben ("The Man Behind the Curtain"). Shout-out to one of the posters in the comments section on this site for suggesting that Aaron might see visions of his own mother as Ben did, because this set me on this train of thought. In this way, the Others (who may or may not also be the Hostiles) will this time around adopt the correct/destined leader, Aaron, instead of the temporary leader, Ben.
It seems that the Others adopt temporary leaders to stall while they wait for their intended leader. This occurred with Ben, as well as with Locke, so that Aaron could become the true leader. It does not mean that these are throw-away leaders; on the contrary, they are necessary steps on the path to planting Aaron in his rightful timeline and role.
Locke seems to have been recruited to make sure that Aaron and the rest of the Oceanic 6 do in fact return to the Island, hence his role as Jeremy Bentham. Once he had accomplished this role, the Island no longer protected him from death (as it may have when Ben shoots him in "The Man Behind the Curtain"), and he somehow dies.
Let's look at some evidence in support of this theory, as well as key moments regarding the issue at hand:
1) Claire's kidnapping: Ethan kidnaps Claire with the intention of abducting Aaron upon birth. At this stage in the storyline, the Swan implosion has not occurred and Jack has not yet called the freighter (the true turning point at which the Island's location was identified), so the Island is still safe from outside intruders. The plan here was probably to let time run its normal course until Aaron was old enough to assume his leadership position. However, once the Swan imploded and the phone call was placed, the course of events became more or less fixed (mercenaries infiltrating the Island, Claire possibly dying in the Barracks raid), leading up to the turning of the Wheel by Ben.
2) Aaron's family: The vast connections between the Island and many members of Aaron's family (Christian, Jack, Claire, Tom - at least with his painting in Widmore's office, if that is relevant) suggest that there is a greater conspiracy at work here. That Christian (Aaron's grandfather) becomes one of Jacob's spokesmen is significant. Interesting that Aaron's grandmother clearly recovers from her brain trauma (apparently without any permanent damage, either); this smacks of the Island's healing and protective powers, even off-Island (à la Michael).
3) Richard Malkin ("Raised by Another") emphasizes the crucial role Aaron is to play, and he is pivotal in Aaron being born on the Island since he purchases the plane tickets for Claire. He insists that she must take this flight and none other. I do not think it plausible to ignore the strong likelihood that he was working for Ben or Widmore or whomever; Malkin's actions and commitment to getting Claire on *that* flight would be otherwise very odd and unusual. It is also possible that he merely foresees Aaron's importance and the events that are contingent on his role as leader, and he therefore chooses to con Claire onto the plane. I think the former far more likely.
When history repeats itself, and Aaron is courted by Richard Alpert instead of Ben, history will begin to take a different course, and this can be seen as a course-correction of sorts on the fact that Ben should not have become the leader of the Others at this stage in history. With Aaron's leadership, a different course of events would lead to a very different outcome in terms of the Ben (or Jacob) vs. Widmore stand-off.
Who knows, Aaron replacing Ben may even negate John Locke's death (since he will no longer need to be recruited as an Island leader), though I think that the writers have said that they would not use this type of narrative technique. Hmmm....
Finally, I am interested in how Walt might fit into all of this. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!
Theory by Francisco
