while a lot of folks having been referring to Jacob and Esau's (for lack of a better name) ongoing and eternal chess match, I just thought it'd be interesting to analogize to the game we've actually seen played in lost back in season one by locke and walt: backgammon.
in backgammon, black and white pieces are moved around a circuit or loop from an initial antagonistic stasis and finally "brought home" at the completion of the loop. The rules can be found here.
The movements are dictated by the roll of dice (the variable) but certain patterns inherent to the game make it very very clear what potential moves work from any given position (the constants). An interesting sidenote is that an opposing players piece, if it is alone at it's particular position, may be landed upon and sent back to the beginning of the loop where it is imprisoned and must roll a certain number to escape to a free spot (this gets more and more difficult at the end of the game when the positions in front of the "prison" are all blocked off by one's opponent). Anyways, I just thought that backgammon has some slightly more interesting parallels to LOST; I'm not sure if there's really anything deep there.
Also- folks, just for the record it was Hurley who broke the ash ring and freed Esau. I think Esau was the one in the cabin all along. He is the one who asked locke to help him, and appeared as Christian and Claire (the form of Claire being so important to really manipulate Locke into moving the island, as he did not know Christian). All the dead people who have appeared- Ben's mom, Yemi, Boone, etc. are all really Esau/Smokey. Notice that all the apparitions that invoke "destiny"-you HAVE to do this, etc, are all Esau. Jacob always advocates for free will, choice.
PPS- Some have said that Ben (and Locke) were never supposed to be the Leader of the others, that Richard somehow made a mistake. I don't think this is possible, as Richard's actions have been always overseen directly by Jacob. I think Jacob has been one step ahead of Esau/Smokey the whole way and allowed these people to become leader so that everything would culminate to exactly this point- Jacob was not afraid or surprised when evil Locke and Ben entered his chamber.
When Jacob asks Ben, "What about you?", I think there is a bit of a dual meaning- 1) the demeaning tone to make Ben actually stab him (part of his plan) but also 2) right before that Ben asks "what was so wrong with me?". The answer- when he was resurrected in the temple he came under the ownership of smokey and has remained there his whole life since. Jacob is asking him what it is about Ben that Jacob would never speak to him.
in backgammon, black and white pieces are moved around a circuit or loop from an initial antagonistic stasis and finally "brought home" at the completion of the loop. The rules can be found here.
The movements are dictated by the roll of dice (the variable) but certain patterns inherent to the game make it very very clear what potential moves work from any given position (the constants). An interesting sidenote is that an opposing players piece, if it is alone at it's particular position, may be landed upon and sent back to the beginning of the loop where it is imprisoned and must roll a certain number to escape to a free spot (this gets more and more difficult at the end of the game when the positions in front of the "prison" are all blocked off by one's opponent). Anyways, I just thought that backgammon has some slightly more interesting parallels to LOST; I'm not sure if there's really anything deep there.
Also- folks, just for the record it was Hurley who broke the ash ring and freed Esau. I think Esau was the one in the cabin all along. He is the one who asked locke to help him, and appeared as Christian and Claire (the form of Claire being so important to really manipulate Locke into moving the island, as he did not know Christian). All the dead people who have appeared- Ben's mom, Yemi, Boone, etc. are all really Esau/Smokey. Notice that all the apparitions that invoke "destiny"-you HAVE to do this, etc, are all Esau. Jacob always advocates for free will, choice.
PPS- Some have said that Ben (and Locke) were never supposed to be the Leader of the others, that Richard somehow made a mistake. I don't think this is possible, as Richard's actions have been always overseen directly by Jacob. I think Jacob has been one step ahead of Esau/Smokey the whole way and allowed these people to become leader so that everything would culminate to exactly this point- Jacob was not afraid or surprised when evil Locke and Ben entered his chamber.
When Jacob asks Ben, "What about you?", I think there is a bit of a dual meaning- 1) the demeaning tone to make Ben actually stab him (part of his plan) but also 2) right before that Ben asks "what was so wrong with me?". The answer- when he was resurrected in the temple he came under the ownership of smokey and has remained there his whole life since. Jacob is asking him what it is about Ben that Jacob would never speak to him.
