It goes without saying that the Island had an indigenous, Egyptian population at one time. Testament is the statues and the hieroglyphic lined temples. Whether that means that some thoroughfaring Egyptians found a backdoor to the Island via Tunisia, that Egyptian mythology was seeded by the donkey-wheeled Island natives cum expats to North Africa in days yonder, or that the Island itself was teleported from elsewhere in antiquity is up for debate. None of that is either here nor there.
What we do know, outside of the mythos, is that the Island has been inadvertently populated [usually to disastrous results] only a few times. In the 20th/21st century by 815, Henry Gale, Rosseau's vessel, the American military and once again by 316. But before all this was the Black Rock, a 19th Century slave trader embarking from Porstmouth.
In Jughead we meet the Others of 1954. A hodge podge of Brits and Africans who would be the perfect combination of survivors of a British slave vessel. The only anomalous person is the ever-present, and de facto leader, Richard Alpert [clearly not African or English]. There is also the fact that the Others of that era are all versed in Latin, and Richard is Spanish by some degree.
It seems odd, unless Richard Alpert was a [say] Jesuit missionary on the same boat to Siam. A Catholic priest has the potential to be versed in Latin and would be the only logical way that the Others would be able to communicate through it. It continues to stand to reason that after a crew of sailors and slaves alike crash, miraculously, onto a mysterious and seemingly magical Island that defies any understanding [this is the 1800s, a few years before Einstein, Hawking, Faraday, or Heisenberg] this rag-tag crew would immediately defer leadership to the token metaphysician in their ranks. [This may be magnified if Richard was dead/dying before the crash, making his life on Island all the more miraculous. But Occam's razor can attribute Albert's position to uninformed human psychology, before having to defer to something more convoluted.]
The idea that a Jesuit missionary, who happens upon a seemingly miraculous island does find foundation in the episode of 316, where we find Ben praying in a Catholic church [/Dharma station] and discussing the finer details of theology with Jack. Where would Ben get that frame of view from?
Richard and the Black Rock crashed on the Island, given their times world-view, Richard related the nature of the Island as a Faith based one. Where electro-magnetic phenomenon are angels, limping bald dudes are prophets, and time travelers are prophets. The Black Rockers/Others/Hostile were borne from this idea, of taking the Island as a new Eden, of sorts.
This begins the Science/Faith dichotomy of the series. That is, is the Island unfathomable and miraculous, or is it an explainable, anomalous piece of prime real estate? I would like to think the latter is the result of the schism between not only the DI and the Others, but between the Other exiles; Eloise and Widmore and the Others/Richard/Jacob.
It's evident that Richard/the Others had the capacity of leaving the Island by at least 1956, its also proved that Richard/the Others had connection to the outside world in the early seventies by creating the front Mittelos company. One can infer that they continued to have a progressing understanding of the outside world since 1954 at least. It wouldn't be wrong to think that Widmore was also starting an off-island empire, while on Island. Let's not forget that the crew of the Black Rock were on a mercantile escapade to begin with. The businessmen of the 19th century can't be too different in attitude from the business men of the 21st.
I reason that Widmore, realising the inherent properties of the Island; a realisation magnified by all that talk of time-travel and other bilk that H.G. Wells had yet to write about, looked to use the Island, which is, as it stands, the most important place on the planet, to his own advantage. As any venture capitalist would.
The war, not just the oncoming one, but the over-all, meta-war is those who want to rationally understand the Island, and those who want to venerate and protect it for no other reason that it is special. Each side in this war now has an equally poised, but dissimilar representative.
Take for example those popular, political alignment quizes that use a quadrant graph to describe your political views on the axis of two polarizing divisions. Replace Left/Right and Libertarian/Totalitarian with Island Miraculous/Island Empirical and Self-interest and Group-Interest. Widmore would be far to the corner of Island Empirical and Self-interest. Jack would be Island Empirical [both men of science] but Group interest. Richard is Island Miraculous and Group-interest oriented. That leaves Ben, or Locke in the place of the latter.
I think that the Island, if it is awarded a consciousness, or atleast an aggregation of psyche's to cast its own vote is trying to change its own past/future just as the Dharma folks are trying to change the Equation. The world is a loop of chess games, with each side trying to balance it at a stalemate by changing the pieces and board itself.Theory by hotlostdudeguyhot79cool
What we do know, outside of the mythos, is that the Island has been inadvertently populated [usually to disastrous results] only a few times. In the 20th/21st century by 815, Henry Gale, Rosseau's vessel, the American military and once again by 316. But before all this was the Black Rock, a 19th Century slave trader embarking from Porstmouth.
In Jughead we meet the Others of 1954. A hodge podge of Brits and Africans who would be the perfect combination of survivors of a British slave vessel. The only anomalous person is the ever-present, and de facto leader, Richard Alpert [clearly not African or English]. There is also the fact that the Others of that era are all versed in Latin, and Richard is Spanish by some degree.
It seems odd, unless Richard Alpert was a [say] Jesuit missionary on the same boat to Siam. A Catholic priest has the potential to be versed in Latin and would be the only logical way that the Others would be able to communicate through it. It continues to stand to reason that after a crew of sailors and slaves alike crash, miraculously, onto a mysterious and seemingly magical Island that defies any understanding [this is the 1800s, a few years before Einstein, Hawking, Faraday, or Heisenberg] this rag-tag crew would immediately defer leadership to the token metaphysician in their ranks. [This may be magnified if Richard was dead/dying before the crash, making his life on Island all the more miraculous. But Occam's razor can attribute Albert's position to uninformed human psychology, before having to defer to something more convoluted.]
The idea that a Jesuit missionary, who happens upon a seemingly miraculous island does find foundation in the episode of 316, where we find Ben praying in a Catholic church [/Dharma station] and discussing the finer details of theology with Jack. Where would Ben get that frame of view from?
Richard and the Black Rock crashed on the Island, given their times world-view, Richard related the nature of the Island as a Faith based one. Where electro-magnetic phenomenon are angels, limping bald dudes are prophets, and time travelers are prophets. The Black Rockers/Others/Hostile were borne from this idea, of taking the Island as a new Eden, of sorts.
This begins the Science/Faith dichotomy of the series. That is, is the Island unfathomable and miraculous, or is it an explainable, anomalous piece of prime real estate? I would like to think the latter is the result of the schism between not only the DI and the Others, but between the Other exiles; Eloise and Widmore and the Others/Richard/Jacob.
It's evident that Richard/the Others had the capacity of leaving the Island by at least 1956, its also proved that Richard/the Others had connection to the outside world in the early seventies by creating the front Mittelos company. One can infer that they continued to have a progressing understanding of the outside world since 1954 at least. It wouldn't be wrong to think that Widmore was also starting an off-island empire, while on Island. Let's not forget that the crew of the Black Rock were on a mercantile escapade to begin with. The businessmen of the 19th century can't be too different in attitude from the business men of the 21st.
I reason that Widmore, realising the inherent properties of the Island; a realisation magnified by all that talk of time-travel and other bilk that H.G. Wells had yet to write about, looked to use the Island, which is, as it stands, the most important place on the planet, to his own advantage. As any venture capitalist would.
The war, not just the oncoming one, but the over-all, meta-war is those who want to rationally understand the Island, and those who want to venerate and protect it for no other reason that it is special. Each side in this war now has an equally poised, but dissimilar representative.
Take for example those popular, political alignment quizes that use a quadrant graph to describe your political views on the axis of two polarizing divisions. Replace Left/Right and Libertarian/Totalitarian with Island Miraculous/Island Empirical and Self-interest and Group-Interest. Widmore would be far to the corner of Island Empirical and Self-interest. Jack would be Island Empirical [both men of science] but Group interest. Richard is Island Miraculous and Group-interest oriented. That leaves Ben, or Locke in the place of the latter.
I think that the Island, if it is awarded a consciousness, or atleast an aggregation of psyche's to cast its own vote is trying to change its own past/future just as the Dharma folks are trying to change the Equation. The world is a loop of chess games, with each side trying to balance it at a stalemate by changing the pieces and board itself.Theory by hotlostdudeguyhot79cool
