Losties Are Already Dead and Smokey Isn't Necessarily Evil Incarnate by dc

We all remember how Richard looked at that old photo of the 1970s Losties and said, "I saw every one of them die." Later on, in the present time, he tells Jack, "I know something you don't. You're all dead."

I realize this has been theorized before, but I wanted to connect it with Smokey. We keep returning to this--Smokey has to be evil because he killed all those people. But what if the Island is an elaborate game Jacob has devised (we will learn the 'rules' shortly); he can bring people to the Island, which is indeed more like Purgatory. Jacob and MIB are playing a game (MIB is NOT dead--remember the mother said a) they couldn't kill each other and b) the Light was a fate 'worse than death'). We don't know the rules yet. But the chess pieces are Losties, who are dead but not passed on. We still don't know whether Jacob has become truly good or whether he just wants to manipulate people to become the next Light Caretaker, as his Goddess-Witch-Mother did before him and therefore is just as 'evil' as Smokey--they each want something and are willing to sacrifice anyone for it.

Whenever Smokey kills people, he sort of shrugs it off--it's not like he gloats as you'd expect Evil Incarnate to do. He doesn't really bother to explain; the only time he did was when he killed the Temple people and told our Losties, "They didn't make a goo choice" or something like that (they chose to stay).

What if they're already dead? Their deaths wouldn't be a 'big deal' because they've already died; they're just moving on. In this sense, Smokey isn't "evil incarnate.' He is not Good, of course--he is extremely manipulative. But he is still very similar to to MIB, although corrupted from being Smokey for 2000 years and never being able to get off that Island. ANd let's not forget that Jacob is extremely manipulative too.

Just a thought--not a big theory. But I wondered if we're being deliberately mislead by the producers to believe this is a huge battle between Absolute Good versus Absolute Evil, when it doesn't seem to be, especially if Smokey hasn't 'really' killed anyone (and not saying he is Good! Just not necessarily Evil Incarnate)