Given that "there is a war coming," presumably over the island, it is only reasonable to consider who the two sides will be and what their different claims on the island are. At the moment, it seems likely that the two sides will the Others and the people behind the Dharma Initiative.
We actually know very little about either group. The Others have been on the island since before 1954, possibly long before. Other than during Ben's regime, they seem to be nomadic. Their not-quite-leader is the ageless Richard Alpert, which gives us very little additional information about this group. They seem to answer to the equally mysterious Jacob. Again, no help.
So, what about Dharma? They were founded by the DeGroots, whom we only ever even heard of in the Swan Orientation film. There is some connection to the Hanso family, which also has a connection to the Black Rock. They like overalls, polar bears, science experiments, and guns. We know very little of their actual motives or the forces behind it, although it seems likely that they are very well funded, given that food drops were still going on in 2004.
But there is one other thing we about each one. Language. The Others speak Latin for some reason. The Dharma Initiative children are studying ancient Egyptian, not just hieroglyphics, but pronunciation.
There is of course plenty of other Egyptian symbolism on the island and on the show in general. The statue appears to be Egyptian in style. The temple and the secret room in Ben's house both have hieroglyphics. The timer in the swan showed hieroglyphics if the button was not pushed on time. There were more of them in the cave with the frozen donkey wheel. Paul's necklace was an Ankh.
Latin was the language of the Roman empire, and there is a remarkable lack of references to Roman mythology on the show. The only concrete examples I can think of are the Apollo candy bars and the mention of the Cerberus Vents on Radzinsky's map, which is pretty obscure compared to the hit-you-over-the-head Egyptian references.
The Egyptian references and language appear in two contexts: ancient stuff on the island and Dharma stuff on the island. The Roman stuff is a bit more mixed. The Cerberus reference and Apollo bars are Dharma, but the Latin is the Others.
So after all that, here is the theory. The Other speak Latin because they are the inheritors of the Roman tradition on the island; the Dharma folks use tons of Egyptian symbolism because they are the inheritors of the Egyptian tradition on the island. Given the large quantity of ancient Egyptian symbolism on the island and the lack of similar Roman symbolism, and the fact that the Egyptian civilization predated the Roman by several millennia, I am saying that the Dharma folks (or the powers behind them) are the rightful heirs of the island.
The Others are the invaders.
We actually know very little about either group. The Others have been on the island since before 1954, possibly long before. Other than during Ben's regime, they seem to be nomadic. Their not-quite-leader is the ageless Richard Alpert, which gives us very little additional information about this group. They seem to answer to the equally mysterious Jacob. Again, no help.
So, what about Dharma? They were founded by the DeGroots, whom we only ever even heard of in the Swan Orientation film. There is some connection to the Hanso family, which also has a connection to the Black Rock. They like overalls, polar bears, science experiments, and guns. We know very little of their actual motives or the forces behind it, although it seems likely that they are very well funded, given that food drops were still going on in 2004.
But there is one other thing we about each one. Language. The Others speak Latin for some reason. The Dharma Initiative children are studying ancient Egyptian, not just hieroglyphics, but pronunciation.
There is of course plenty of other Egyptian symbolism on the island and on the show in general. The statue appears to be Egyptian in style. The temple and the secret room in Ben's house both have hieroglyphics. The timer in the swan showed hieroglyphics if the button was not pushed on time. There were more of them in the cave with the frozen donkey wheel. Paul's necklace was an Ankh.
Latin was the language of the Roman empire, and there is a remarkable lack of references to Roman mythology on the show. The only concrete examples I can think of are the Apollo candy bars and the mention of the Cerberus Vents on Radzinsky's map, which is pretty obscure compared to the hit-you-over-the-head Egyptian references.
The Egyptian references and language appear in two contexts: ancient stuff on the island and Dharma stuff on the island. The Roman stuff is a bit more mixed. The Cerberus reference and Apollo bars are Dharma, but the Latin is the Others.
So after all that, here is the theory. The Other speak Latin because they are the inheritors of the Roman tradition on the island; the Dharma folks use tons of Egyptian symbolism because they are the inheritors of the Egyptian tradition on the island. Given the large quantity of ancient Egyptian symbolism on the island and the lack of similar Roman symbolism, and the fact that the Egyptian civilization predated the Roman by several millennia, I am saying that the Dharma folks (or the powers behind them) are the rightful heirs of the island.
The Others are the invaders.
