Alright, so obviously Locke is the loophole. I just genuinely lacked a good title for this theory.
It's safe to assume that Jacob and Black Shirt (We'll call him Esau) are in a time loop. Jacob vouched for the good will in humans, along with free will. Black shirt vouches for the purge of all non-pure humans, because he believes this is the only way. Jacob has been aware of the loophole for sometime now. I believe in the past, the 316ers died in 1977 at the incident. They were unable to get back to 1977, and Richard Alpert 'saw them all die'. What's different this time around? I believe in the first loop, Jacob never visited Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sun & Jin, Locke, or Sawyer. To set up my theory, think of this as a game of chess. The two players are Jacob and Esau. Jacob died because sometimes you have to sacrifice the queen to win. Because really, Jacob didn't have to die at all. He just wanted Ben to know he had a choice.
It's no coincidence that Jacob just happened to touch all the 316ers, and all the camera shots conveniently showed it. I don't know what Jacob did, whether he went Voldemort and created horcruxes, or it was simply a way for him to be connected to his 'pawns'. I think this connection allowed Jacob to pull then back to 2007 directly as the bomb explodes from the incident. Juliet is dead. The writers made a point to show Jacob never visited her. So somewhere along the way Jacob planned for his own demise so his side could win by visiting all the aforementioned Losties. This gave him the ability to change his 'pawns' into 6 'queens' so to speak. Esau seemed genuinely surprised or fearful to the eery 'they're coming'.
To summarize: I think the thing that has changed in this part of the time loop is Jacob visited all the people in past. I don't think that ever happened before. However, it would be weird to think that if he did bring Locke back to life then how did ever get back to the island before. I don't think he brought Locke back to life. I'm not sure what he did to Locke, but Jacob somehow knew that he was the loophole. And for Jacob to win the war, he must die. With that accomplished the losties return from 1977, lines are drawn, and a battle ensues.
It's safe to assume that Jacob and Black Shirt (We'll call him Esau) are in a time loop. Jacob vouched for the good will in humans, along with free will. Black shirt vouches for the purge of all non-pure humans, because he believes this is the only way. Jacob has been aware of the loophole for sometime now. I believe in the past, the 316ers died in 1977 at the incident. They were unable to get back to 1977, and Richard Alpert 'saw them all die'. What's different this time around? I believe in the first loop, Jacob never visited Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sun & Jin, Locke, or Sawyer. To set up my theory, think of this as a game of chess. The two players are Jacob and Esau. Jacob died because sometimes you have to sacrifice the queen to win. Because really, Jacob didn't have to die at all. He just wanted Ben to know he had a choice.
It's no coincidence that Jacob just happened to touch all the 316ers, and all the camera shots conveniently showed it. I don't know what Jacob did, whether he went Voldemort and created horcruxes, or it was simply a way for him to be connected to his 'pawns'. I think this connection allowed Jacob to pull then back to 2007 directly as the bomb explodes from the incident. Juliet is dead. The writers made a point to show Jacob never visited her. So somewhere along the way Jacob planned for his own demise so his side could win by visiting all the aforementioned Losties. This gave him the ability to change his 'pawns' into 6 'queens' so to speak. Esau seemed genuinely surprised or fearful to the eery 'they're coming'.
To summarize: I think the thing that has changed in this part of the time loop is Jacob visited all the people in past. I don't think that ever happened before. However, it would be weird to think that if he did bring Locke back to life then how did ever get back to the island before. I don't think he brought Locke back to life. I'm not sure what he did to Locke, but Jacob somehow knew that he was the loophole. And for Jacob to win the war, he must die. With that accomplished the losties return from 1977, lines are drawn, and a battle ensues.
