Battle of the Figure 8 by Randy JuJu

Let's get straight to it:

There is a battle of two time-lines/universes. Think of a figure "8", lying on it's side. The incident (and also another point, featured later) represents the intersection of the two sustained loops.

If the incident is the mid point/intersection, let's focus on the first loop. Again, envision a figure "8" lying on it's side. On the left loop is a timeline where Flight 815 crashes on the island. Jack and our other losties enact the series of events seen through seasons 1-5 while on the island. In this time-line, Desmond manned the Hatch and did not properly press the button, causing 815 to crash. Moving quickly to the point and skipping a recap of all of these now familiar events, our losties (who were NEVER MEANT TO LEAVE THE ISLAND) leave the island and come back and then travel to 1977 and cause the incident. ***Author's note—I will examine the "never meant to leave" point after I get through the basis of this theory.

Jack and Co. cause the incident, which destroys the future sight of the SWAN and prevents it's existence. Here is the mid-point, or intersection of our figure "8." If Jack and Co. caused the incident, and therefore prevent the existence of the Swan Hatch, then Desmond is never brought to the island and does not man the button, which does not cause 815 to crash. Now we are on the right side of the loop. This is a sustained time-line/loop where 815 does not crash and our familiar Losties go about their lives on the mainland. Now, and please follow me, I will clarify your question (the big one, re: the Alt and Jacob's lack of involvement) in a bit..... Now, if Desmond is not in the hatch, and if there is no hatch in general, then the Losties never come to the island, which means that there are no Losties to go back in time to 1977, which means that there is no one to set off Jughead, which means that the Swan does get built. We have now looped back to the midpoint or int! ersection of the figure "8." So now, 815 does crash, because the Swan does get built and Desmond does make it to the hatch and does forget to push the button. Think of Locke's compass, because here is a figure "8" loop or paradox that will keep repeating based on these terms.

Okay, now to your main question: The Alt time-line appears to be a universe where Jacob never interfered with our Losties. So there is more going on than just The Incident, because the Incident didn't really involve Jacob. Or destroy him.

Here's where things get tricky. Ask yourself why the writers (Darlton) cross-edited the scenes of the incident with the scenes of MIB/Ben killing Jacob. I believe these two events are connected, somehow related, I wish that I could investigate this point further, but I can only offer this: JACOB HAD YET TO TIME TRAVEL AND INTERACT WITH OUR LOSTIES BEFORE HE WAS MURDERED BY BEN AND MIB. If we can imagine that the left of the Figure "8" is a timeline where Jacob doesn't get murdered and is thereby allowed to time travel and interact with our losties, and the right side of the Figure "8" loop is a time-line/universe where MIB successfully killed Jacob, then Jacob died before he was able to manage these moves, therefore, the Losties were never meddled with, therefore they never came to the island.

These two universes will battle. Two sides of the conflict. Jacob is the dominant force of the LEFT, MIB is the dominant force of the RIGHT. Here's a wild guess, that does not need to be close to correct for the rest of this theory to be relevant. JACOB & MIB ARE BOTH THE SAME PERSON. I'll wager that they are both AARON. Aaron from the timeline on the left vs. Aaron from the timeline on the Right. Aaron where he was born on the island, and raised by Kate and later his grandmother, vs. Aaron that was raised solely by Claire off the island. Nature vs. Nuture. I don't want to delve deeper into this, because it is unresolved in my own head!

**** to that author's note. The Losties were in fact, never meant to leave. The island was always going to time travel back to 1977. This explains why Sun would not have time-traveled with the rest of our losties. If she would have never left, she would have been pregnant, and therefore, would have died on the island. Another, somewhat unrelated theory.

Thanks for reading!