the difference is that one of these items was used by the writers to drive interest in the show. it posed this crazy question, which led to fan interaction, which led to ratings, etc.

no one really cared about Jack's tatoos, at least to the extent it really wasn't part of the Lost mythology that made the Lost universe so unique and crazy

I don't need the writers to tell me how the Losties survived without ideal portions of the 4 food groups, but I do need to tell me how about all these Lost things (some of which they did, some of which they didn't)

I agree totally.

LOL everything led to fan interaction and contemplation. That's not the show's fault.

That is so goddamn nuts. Is that a real link? I've read fake news stories doctored up to look exactly like the BBC.

http://www.newturfers.com/mwf/attach...Ring-Fight.htm

Oh bulls***. They ate that **** up and played to it like crazy. The ComicCon appeareances, the podcasts, all the interviews, etc...

lol?

I don't think Ben had to fake anything wrt DHARMA, he became them. He had amassed a fortune and power off the island, recall when he registered for a room at the 5 star hotel, VIP status. Then Tom Friendly at a 5 star NY hotel.

His control of the Flame & Looking Glass would give him the ability to coordinate the drops.

I know only four of the Lost numbers appeared but Jesus Christ thats some coincidence!

Another source for anyone interested:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...ght-draws.html

Makes a lot of sense

It not the lack of answers per se, just the general lack of a plot. I dont need every little thing answered. Like I dont need to know about the food drops or how can time travel work, or how can they all meet up in purgatory. I can completely suspend my disbelief.

What I have a problem with is them trying to develop big plots and a complete inability to follow through with them. People say we should cut them some slack, but they were completely able to blow our minds for the first 3-4 season in a satisfying manner while still leaving many answers un answered. Thats the show I wanted to watch, not some super world destroying smoke monster getting beaten by a superman punch because the writers cant think of anything better.

Did they lose JJ Abrams or money from the first season or something?

Haha missed that, guess I don't have them memorized. Still crazy crazy coincidence.

I guess I didn't make my point very well. It wasn't that they never explained motivations or that in the end I didn't get them but rather that without them being mysterious at the time the conflicts that drove the show wouldn't have been very interesting. In other words, the story itself isn't interesting unless it's told in a way that deceives us into thinking there is something interesting going on that we don't know about yet when in reality that's not the case.

It's both good and bad storytelling. On the good side, they sucked us in with a mediocre plot. On the bad side, we felt cheated and watching a second time is not interesting at all.

to me, these are examples to the close attention to detail that went into the production of the show for many years and made the show amazing that were lacking towards the homestretch and resulted in a mediocre and less satisfying finish.

i think the ending would've made a lot of people happy if they just left out the stupid alternate universe all together and spent the time answering questions instead

The lottery story was huge at the time. It was even mentioned in the TV show Numb3rs.

Random numbers do random things. My fave part of that story is no one picked the numbers the first time but the second time 18 people did.

also, i will never buy the idea being tossed out all the time now that "LOST has always been character driven"

first of all, the island is/has been as much of a "character" as any one member of the cast. it often was described with human qualities and having a will of its own OVER and OVER "the island is done with you," "the island wont let you," "the island chose you" etc.

and i dont care what arguments you try to present, the reason Lost captivated such a large and diverse audience was because it was BOTH character driven, and plot/mystery driven, and pretty much achieved the perfect balance of character development and plot/mystery development for the better part of 3-4 seasons, IMO.

this is why such a large percentage of the audience feels less than satisfied with the conclusion of a series that was an amazing journey. the writers dropped the ball in a lot of aspects if you were drawn to the series for the mystery/island/plot vs. a connection to one or more of the characters.

and lets be honest, the character development had its share of ups and downs also, im still LOLing at the fact that even in the afterlife and being "awoken" jack is the only one that doesnt "get it" and has to have christian break it down and spoon feed him the answer. kinda like earlier in the season when they are at the campfire...Jack: "canidates for what?" after it has been laid out in very blunt fashion lol

Sure, but **** like the picture frames?

The only thing I feel this way about is the Walt story, and it's pretty obvious why they couldn't continue along those lines. Since they couldn't continue, Michael making a "deal" to let Walt go was as good a way to end it as any.

Hint: Those scenes aren't for Jack.

Bonus Hint: They are for people like you who want it spelled out.

Yeah, that's just people overanalyzing. But there certainly were subtle hints dropped into the show. The Flashforward anagram for the funeral home is one. So it's not like that was too crazy of an idea. It would have been pretty cool if those people were actually right and it was a cool setup. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Right, but look at what we're discussing:

Never ever ever once did I care about who Libby's husband was, or how he came to have the boat that Desmond eventually got. In a world where I don't care about Jack's tattoo's, I care even less about unseen fictional husband.

How were we "deceived into thinking there was something interesting going on when in reality that wasn't the case"? WTF? Unless you think everything we learned about the island, MiB, Jacob, Ab Aeterno, Across the Sea, The End, etc was all just a lie? I don't get it.

Clearly something interesting WAS going on with the island that we didn't know about at the time. If you think it was a weak explanation that's fine but don't pretend like we learned ABSOLUTELY nothing from s3 til The End and that the island was just some random island that was part of the South Pacific.

With you 100% up to here.

I don't feel like the writers dropped the ball at all. The mystery/island/plot stuff to me was either sufficiently explained, largely irrelevant, or I preferred it not being explicitly spelled out. I don't think either of us is right or wrong, we just expected different things from the show.

where did i ever say i want it spelled out? its quite the opposite in fact. im asking for SMALL details to LARGE plotholes/mysteries that were introduced intentionally and then never again expanded upon. how about not just abandoning ideas/concepts that you implemented for the singular purpose of hype and/or engaging viewers? just to create an OMG LOST moment with no payoff later, even if its the tiniest nod?

perfect example is FLocke leaving jacobs chamber after having ben kill jacob, "Its nice to see you out of those chains richard." the reaction from richard lets you know he immediately knows FLockes true identity. many episodes later we see that MIB released richard from his chains in the black rock and that is why richard reacted the way he did.

i clearly say its LOL that the dialogue is even there after it is apparent what is going on in regards to jack.

thanks for douching it up tho instead of actually responding to the main crux of my post, which was that Lost has always been equally plot/mystery driven as it has been character driven...you surely have scored some forum points. GG

i can respect your point of view, and really thats my whole point is that there are clearly different demographics of the audience that were more interested in different aspects of the series. i think the finale catered more towards the character driven crowd, which is fine, i just think the shows strength used to be its amazing balance of both.

and ultimately you end up where we are at currently, which is a lot of fans loved it, it pulled all the right heart-strings, a lot of fans hated it/wanted more answers, and a lot of fans were in the middle.

i personally enjoyed it and am glad i watched and still think Lost is the greatest network television ride ive ever taken, i just think there are missed opportunities for OMG LOST revelations were deliberately set up and for whatever reason fell to the side. no big surprise really, but there is also a lot of dead screen time of them spoon-feeding the viewers via jack(and many others, hugo, michael, etc.) that could have been used for more productive purposes.