All about Linus and Widmore by RyBones35

For some time, this show has built up the feud between Ben Linus and Charles Widmore. This may have lead many people to believe that the final showdown or war that was coming would end up being between two sides that they were at the head of. Obviously this all came into play long before the feud between MIB and Jacob was introduced.

This concept began people contemplating about who's side each of them is on. Was Widmore following Jacob during his time as leader on the island? Did MIB manipulate Ben into having Widmore exiled so that HE, using Ben would now be in control of the island and the others? After all everyone (including Richard) was in the dark about everything so they would just follow the guidance of the on island leader. This also contributes to the why Widmore sent mercenaries to get Ben as he believed that the MIB was now in conrtol of the others through Ben.
I think the whole feud between Ben and Widmore was used by the writers as a form of misdirection. I believe that MIB was responsible for the flashes, contributing to Ben being shot by Sayid thus starting his loophole. MIB saw Ben as an evil man and knew he could count on him to do his bidding (Killing Jacob).
One thing that is for sure about all of this is that when Ben was taken to the temple to be healed, he did not become infected. This is proven by the fact that Sayid says he "feels nothing" not pain or emotion etc. and it is obvious that Ben feels these things by his reaction when Alex is killed.
Where this is all going is the idea that Ben(thought to be part of MIB's loophole) is really part of Jacob's counter attack on the loophole.
We almost have to believe that Widmore coming back to the island is with the purpose of helping Jacob. This is obvious for a few reasons. Why else would he have his own sonic fence to protect himself from the MIB? Also, we know that MIB can't leave the island and Jacob can. So with all of the time Widmore has been off island, how else would he have all the information he needs to come back and do his part? Had to be someone connected to Jacob.
I think we have seen (off island) a small win for MIB in that Ben turns the wheel and leaves and recruits Sayid to kill Widmore's men. This is an example of the darkness spreading to the outside world. This is also part of the reason people are not allowed to leave the island and why the people who have left the island had to come back.
So how this all comes together with the feud between Jacob and MIB is that while both of them believe they have recruited a side in the upcoming war MIB is mistaken.
How Jacob will win this eternal battle between good and evil is by proving that man can be good using the feud between Widmore and Ben as his example. They built these two seemingly separate feuds on the show to keep us off balance.
Jacob side will win in the end solely on the basis of Ben and Widmore forgiving each other for what they have done and realizing they are on the same team.
This theory is all over the place anyway so I'm going to throw in a few other thoughts that only somewhat relate to it.
One thing that people haven't taken into consideration, because the series has stratched such a long period of time is that idea that some people want to leave the island and some people want to stay. This was one of the main themes of the first few seasons and it directly relates to how Jacob is happy staying and protecting the island while MIB wants nothing more than to leave. Widmore on the other hand is in a reverse role from the MIB as he is trapped off island and wants nothing more than to return while Ben is happy being on island and remaining as the leader.
Thing like this show that while we are all sitting at home saying "who's side is he on?"(about everyone) we don't take into consideration the fact that most of them don't even know what side they are on. It also shows that Locke will eventually rise up(somehow) and reunite as a member of Jacob's team because he does not want to leave the island.
I also think that Desmond is a huge piece to this. While he wants nothing to do with the island and would have been happier to never have come back, we know that he is 'unique'.
Maybe MIB would have won if Ben had succeeded in killing Penny (an eye for an eye) but who was there to stop him? Desmond.
It is these little things that go un noticed that are really what this show is all about and while at the time it may be hard to incorporate all of these little things into the larger scheme of the show I have always without a doubt felt that something we have already seen(or maybe many of them) will directly relate to the outcome of this game. We already have all the information for the answers we are looking for and I know the writers love the fact that we can not connect all this to what will ulitmately happen in the show. I know that they are doing exactly what they wanted and at somepoint towards the end in one of the biggest WTF moment of the entire series we will see these things come together in some way that we are all like "How did we not see this?"