*SPOILER WARNING* LOST

[Sheikh Gomelez]

You're amazingly fast. I'm in awe of your lightning fingers.


But Desmond isn't a coward anymore. Atleast, I don't think so. He turned the failsafe key (I almost wrote sailfafe ), thinking that he'd have a very good chance that he would die. So hasn't he kinda redeemed himself? I'm way confused, and mind you, I was drinking heavily as I watched this, so perhaps a re-watching is in order.

Dharma and karma have a lot-- A LOT-- to do with intention and mindset as well as action. As I've suggested, he's a coward with respect to his intentions and his responsibility to others.

"You broke her heart..."

"I had no choice."

In the scheme of things, mightn't the little things-- such as love, or saving a single person's life-- be as important as the big things? As everything is connected...

"I said maybe. You're gonna be the one that saves me..."

"But I have no choice, DAMMIT! Not really..."

[Mirage]

So you're saying that he didn't have good intentions by preparing to quite possibly sacrifice himself for everyone else? I think this is a situation of differing opinions on the "little things being as important as big things". He broke her heart in hopes of saving her..and broke his own heart as well. That seems selfess to me. Then you have him seeing into the future, saving Claire repeatedly, and ready to die to save everyone. To me it seems like TPTB are setting him up to be some kind of freaking hot prophet.

Edit: STUPID. SONG. GET. OUT. OF. HEAD. AHHHHHHHH!!!!

[Sheikh Gomelez]

If the world was supposed to end, his "saving the world" would also be a mere delaying tactic, true?

Prophets can be deluded or misinterpret their own visions.

I don't think Desmond thought things through. If he had:

The Old Woman: The world will end unless you are stranded on the island.

Desmond: World's gonna end anyway. Sod it, let's hit the pub for a pint then, eh?

[Mirage]

If the world was supposed to end, his "saving the world" would also be a mere delaying tactic, true?

Prophets can be deluded or misinterpret their own visions.

Which you could interpret as trying to change the ultimate future, then, right? If the world ending IS the fate, then he was trying to change fate...which cant be changed--is inevitable. Then again, would not pressing the button really end the world? We still don't actually know. I mean, yeah, from what we did see it would seem that way, but we don't know for sure.

Well you can argue that any prophet that spends a lot of his screen time getting flat out drunk might be a tad deluded.

What if Desmond "going back" in whatever way, whether an actual "time jump" or just in his mind and trying to change things is the EXACT parallel of what the scientists were trying to do with the Valenzetti Equation? He's trying to change a variable. Just like them.

Whoah, I just blew my own mind.

[Sheikh Gomelez]

If the world was supposed to end, his "saving the world" would also be a mere delaying tactic, true?

Prophets can be deluded or misinterpret their own visions.

Which you could interpret as trying to change the ultimate future, then, right? If the world ending IS the fate, then he was trying to change fate...which cant be changed--is inevitable. Then again, would not pressing the button really end the world? We still don't actually know. I mean, yeah, from what we did see it would seem that way, but we don't know for sure.

Well you can argue that any prophet that spends a lot of his screen time getting flat out drunk might be a tad deluded.

What if Desmond "going back" in whatever way, whether an actual "time jump" or just in his mind and trying to change things is the EXACT parallel of what the scientists were trying to do with the Valenzetti Equation? He's trying to change a variable. Just like them.

Whoah, I just blew my own mind.

Choice delays outcome, but outcome always arrives, and "choice"-- the exercise of free will, an action undertaken in an attempt to divert the outcome-- causes Time to stumble, not to fall, to put this another way.

If you say "balance", you might want to think "equation"...

...

And does this remind you of the DHARMA Initiative, the Valenzetti Equation, and the "greater good" concept in a pretty meaningful way?

It seems to me that the real question is, "Are all outcomes predetermined?" After all, leaving aside some snarky interpretations of spacetime, the characters are "in" the present for all intents and purposes, whereas Desmond was-- or thought he was-- "in" the past in his flashback/vision. What made his flashback different from everyone else's?

What's the relationship between past, present, and future?

I guess you could ask, "Do we have free will in the present?" Which is kind of like asking if free will exists at all, as the delaying tactic becomes part of the timeline, becomes part of the equation, from some hypothetical absolute/complete perspective of the timeline. When seen, say, from the viewpoint of a entity outside of spacetime. From such a being's outside-the-system point-of-view, past, present, and future-- including the delays-- might appear as parts of a whole, and that whole might be reducible to a formula or equation, but only from that outside-the-system perspective. And that's without considering whether or not the uncertainty principle applies to this hypothetical observer of our universe. Would basic tenets of quantum physics apply to such an observer, or do such rules apply only within this system, this universe? Could error, indeterminacy, or uncertainty exist within equations derived from seemingly divine observations? We don't know. Maybe we can't know, as we're within the system. Such a perspective would be radically different, radically other from ours. If that makes any sense...

[Mirage]

I guess I deserve a punishment for that.

[Sheikh Gomelez]

Not at all.

Well, maybe.

A little.

[Mirage]

Aha! I knew it. It was all some evil plot. You MANIPULATED one of the variables to get to this point just so you could punish me in whatever evil and sadistic way you saw fit.

Pshaw for you and your evil plan!

[Sheikh Gomelez]

It was already part of the equation. It was meant to happen.

I am an instrument of fate; I have no choice.

[Mirage]

"Why do you find it so easy to believe?"
"It's never been easy!!"

Ahh Lost. Popculture philosophy at it's finest.


Do you think we scared everyone away?

[Sheikh Gomelez]

Not at all.

I think they're dining at the moment.

The Moment being a transtemporal franchise similar to McDonald's.

[lordgreystoke422]

MiragO we all know you are MEANT to be punished...
You can't change your fate.











and you like it..

[Mirage]

MiragO we all know you are MEANT to be punished...
You can't change your fate.











and you like it..

Bwahaha! Brilliant---you're connecting me being punished (which I can only imagine as something very dirty) to Lost. Nice work.

Not at all.

I think they're dining at the moment.

The Moment being a transtemporal franchise similar to McDonald's.

*shudder* Lets hope not TOO similar to McDonalds.

Now boys, if you will excuse me, I need to experience my own Moment (ooh, pervy!)....but unfortunately, the transtemporal franchise is my pathetic little galley kitchen.

[iamcool]

racism killing off the only englishman, i demand charlie lives!

[Killthesmiley]

racism killing off the only englishman, i demand charlie lives!

that isn't racism

thats culturism