I liked it too. The point being that in the show, from the points of view of all the protagonists, these people ("The Others") are rather creepy villains. But over and over in this show, things are not what they appear, and as we the see action (both in the present situation on the island and in the past of the characters' lives) we see that no one is quite what they appear to be. And then what they are is still subject to further surprising information and changes of role.
Moral relativism, twisting and turning as the plot twists and turns. From the point of view of the others, they do seem to feel themselves not only justified, but doing something good. But what? We don't know.
about moral relativism, I think most people think of themselves as the 'good guys'. Even the people who do evil things. They might feel there is something that makes them do evil things (an addiction, an (sexual)urge, poverty). But My guess would be that people who do terrorist acts (to name something) are quite convinced they are on the just side.
Yes, I think that's true. No one thinks of themselves as evil, even if they are. (And that's in the viewpoint of someone else, anyway.) Which is one of the themes of "Lost" - everyone is the centre of their own story, and that affects how they relate to the other characters and to the action. Fans can talk about how their favourite character is Jack (yes, another Jack!) or how they like Sayid or Locke or Jin or Hurley, but no one can say definitively that any one character is the hero of the story. They are all the heroes of their own stories, and sometimes the villain of someone else's story. How it will all come out in the end in terms of good guys and bad guys, we don't know.
And one of the most popular characters is Sawyer, who is Bad to the Bone - a con artist. Will he turn out to be heroic - he has the potential - or malevolent? We can't really tell yet, but I know some people who judge the quality of an episode by whether he takes off his shirt.
Add to this that besides just being good or bad, or right or wrong, there's the question of which characters are sane and which are not. It makes for an interesting show.
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Date: 2006-06-18 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-19 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-19 01:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-19 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-19 12:46 pm (UTC)Moral relativism, twisting and turning as the plot twists and turns. From the point of view of the others, they do seem to feel themselves not only justified, but doing something good. But what? We don't know.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-19 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-19 01:10 pm (UTC)And one of the most popular characters is Sawyer, who is Bad to the Bone - a con artist. Will he turn out to be heroic - he has the potential - or malevolent? We can't really tell yet, but I know some people who judge the quality of an episode by whether he takes off his shirt.
Add to this that besides just being good or bad, or right or wrong, there's the question of which characters are sane and which are not. It makes for an interesting show.