if you couldn’t tell, there will be spoilers.

I, like many people, tuned in weekly to watch the saga continue on the mysterious island in Lost.  My husband hadn’t seen the show up until just last year, when we watched seasons 1 through 5, episode after episode, in order to get caught up for when season 6 came on.  Now that the show has ended and the movie-length finale over, I thought I would express some of my final thoughts, as well as ask the questions that were never answered.

How it ended: The idea of purgatory.

The ending pretty much confirmed for me what I had thought to be the case since season 1: they were dead and this was purgatory.  But it isn’t as simple as that as the finale explains this alternate world, the world where Desmond was relinking everyone together, was where they were all waiting to be reunited so they could move on together.  Which, to me, indicated the alternate world was the purgatory in which everyone waited. But there is plenty of evidence to support the island was a part of purgatory as well:

-No one could leave the island. When Desmond tried in Season 2 to leave with the sailboat he ended up coming back again, describing the island as being “stuck in a snowglobe.”

-No one from the outside could find the island.

-The Others were choosing people to kidnap and, when confronted on the very few occasions, had explained that the people they were taking were pure, and the rest of the plane crashed lot were not. (which could indicate the “pure” were moving on to heaven and out of purgatory).

-Locke could walk again and Rose was no longer “dying” of cancer.

-Women could not conceive on the island, which makes sense given you cannot create life in purgatory.  Women who were pregnant when they arrived could still give birth, however. If the island was purgatory and they were dead, it would follow that their unborn children were dead as well, and the souls trapped on the island along with them (these children were also targets of abduction by the Others.  Aaron, Claire’s baby and Sun). This remains true with both the mother of Jacob and the Man in Black as well as Russou, who gave birth to Alex.

-Characters who had led bad lives, and made bad decisions were not present at the end when Christian Shepard led everyone out of the church and into the light.  This included Michael, Ecko, Anna Lucia, and Ben Linus.  Leading one to assume those that were present had proven themselves enough to move on to heaven.

-The Dharma Initiative is a metaphor.  In eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, Dharma is the trials and steps one must take in order to reach nirvana, or enlightenment.   In the show the entire Initiative, the tests that were undertaken by the original Initiative as well as the challenges the Dharma stations posed to those stranded on the island, serve as a metaphorical test, combining the philosophies of the eastern religions along with those of the Christian faith and the idea of purgatory, that the characters must undergo in order to move on.

-The Egyptian statue holding the ankh is a common symbol in Egyptian mythology. The ankh is the symbol for eternal life, and is commonly seen in the hands of deities associated with the afterlife.

But when did they die?

The major question that comes to mind when dealing with the theme of purgatory is “when did they die?”   The above points I made would indicate that the plane crash in the very first episode was the point in which they all died and entered purgatory (the island).  However, if this was the case then how is Ben Linus able to travel to and from the island?  How was the island able to be moved using the turning wheel and the light? When new people arrived to the island was it to be assumed they were already dead?

The second spot in which they could’ve died could have been when Juliette set the bomb off in the soon-to-be-built Dharma station.  She told Sawyer just before she died that “it worked.”  It was from this point in the story that the alternate world story started.  You could assume that, at the explosion, everyone on the island died and both the island and the alternate world were two different levels of purgatory.

The third theory I have on when they died is that ONLY the alternate world is purgatory, and they all died individually: either whilst on the island, or off the island, or simply due to natural causes long after the island.  What indicates this for me is the last ten minutes of the finale.  Hurley is about to enter the church and exchanges a few words with Ben Linus. Ben states he will not be joining them inside the church, that he wasn’t ready yet (perhaps he is due to spend a longer time in purgatory due to his life).  Hurley tells him he “was a great number 2″ and Ben replies that Hurley was “a great number 1″ (Star Trek reference, by the way.) This would indicate that they both  lived out their duties on the island together, Hurley protecting it and Ben acting as his second in command, further supporting that ONLY the alternate world is representative of purgatory.

The last ten minutes.

I once asked a pastor if people remain married when they die and go to heaven.  The response I got was that the souls of people in heaven do not remember such connections to others, and in a way “forget.”    This was the case of characters in Lost, as they needed Desmond to reconnect them in the alternate world.   They all met up in the church and Christian Shepard led them into the light and, presumably, into heaven.  I didn’t quite understand why Claire’s baby Aaron was present as a baby (supporting they died in the initial plane crash) and why Penny was there as well (supporting that the island was, in no way, purgatory).

All in all, I was satisfied with the ending, I thought it confirmed alot of what I had expected throughout the series.  But they left alot of things unanswered.

W…..T…..F….???

Here are some burning questions I wanted resolved but were left unanswered:

-What was the deal with Walt?  Walt was painted in the first couple seasons as being “special.”  This was something that was shown both in his life before the island when he lived with his step father after the death of his mother, and in his time on the island when he was wanted by the Others for how “special” he is.   In what way was he special?  How was he able to appear to people in spectral form, both to Locke and to Shannon (which led to her death)?  And why was he completely written off the show after he was off the island (save for a few, rare, meaningless appearances)?

-What was the significance of the numbers? 4 8 15 16 23 42.   The only thing I can think of is that they corresponded to the plane seats of the characters who would become candidates to replace Jacob.  The only evidence I have of this is that we know Jack sat in 42F, as he revealed this when drinking with Anna Lucia in the Sydney airport bar, and that there are 6 numbers… the same numbers of candidates.   But why enter them into the computer?  Perhaps its a metaphor for faith?  Press them because you are told you must, with no other proof?

-What was the deal with the polar bears?  Seriously.

-How did a simple electromagnetic barrier prevent the Smoke Monster, assumed to be the devil, from entering various areas on the island?

-What was Richard’s role?

-How could Desmond move between points in time (as he was coached on by Faraday), predict deaths, and link everyone together in the alternate world?

-How could Charles Widmore find the island?

-Who were those people sent on the second plane crash to protect Jacob?

The sad thing is, we may never know.

Alternative title: Why am I the only person who realizes this?

May contain spoilers.

I wasn’t aware until we were walking out of the theater that Kick-Ass was the latest in a long and iffy line of comic book adapted movies.  Out of the four of us who went to see it, I was the only one bitching in the end.  And now, as the reviews are in and more of my peers have seen the movie, it continues to be labeled as “awesome” and “must see.”  Sorry, but I feel as though I was unjustly charged actual money to see this garbage, and I will tell you why.

Part of my problem with the movie is, admittingly, not knowing the source material.  I had no clue this was based on a comic book series by the same name, and therefore cannot judge the movie based on how well I feel they captured the essence of the characters.  But I did go into the movie with expectations, and those expectations were handed to me by the trailer for the film.  The trailer is cut in such a way that someone who is not familiar with the comics may think that the movie is a light-hearted comedy about a boy trying to become a real life superhero… and those are the expectations I took into the cinema with me.  Instead, Kick-Ass is a very violent movie. It contains a mass murdering father- 12 year old daughter duo who are also dressed as superheroes, and a cliche, tiring plot about one simple boy getting wrapped up in something much bigger than himself.

Let’s start with the violence.  I am perfectly okay with violence in films if it is done well, I am a huge fan of Tarantino’s work.   Kick-Ass does not have original style when it comes to the violence or action sequences.  Instead, it feels like a Tarantino rip off.  The scenes of graphic violence strike you as something you’ve seen before, perhaps in Kill Bill.  It tried too hard to go for the shock value but failed miserably. Instead of watching something that actually horrified me in it’s gruesomeness, it felt like  cheesy, B horror film violence and gore, fake red corn syrup and all.

Nick Cage and some unknown 12 year old girl play the parts of Big Daddy and Hit Girl, a father daughter team who have been in the game long before Kick-Ass (in case you didn’t know, that’s the young teen Dave’s super hero alter-ego) enters the scene.  If there was anything endearing about this special father-daughter relationship, it was completely overshadowed by the psychopathic need of Nick Cage’s character to train his 12 year old daughter to be a killer and Cage’s terrible, terrible acting. Each time Cage’s character said “child,” as in reference to his daughter, I got a creepy pedophilic vibe from him.

Nick Cage playing his favorite character: Nick Cage.

Speaking of Hit Girl, here is where the majority of the film’s comedic fodder comes in: a 12 year old saying “cunt.”  Sure, we can also count the masturbation scene and the awkwardness of McLovin’s Red Mist character as some of the comedy, but the vast majority of the humor in the movie relies on this one little girl spewing a myriad of cliche one-liners and cuss words that would make a sailor blush.  Again, I have no problem with cussing or the like in movies, but it really got old when the film was using it as a crutch to get a couple of laughs. We get it, it’s fucking ironic a 12 year old pretty little girl would call someone a “cunt” before running across the room to kill him, but we didn’t need to see it done over and over again.  It wasn’t funny after the first dozen times.

She said “cunt.”  I’m literally rolling on the floor laughing, it’s so hilarious.

Then there is the plot.  Is there any plot in the history of movies that is more worn out than ordinary-guy-gets-involved-in-something-way-over-his-head-and-viewers-need-a-flow-chart-just-to-follow-it?  Here is my problem: Take a  movie like Pineapple Express or The Big Lebowski (stoner movies are really guilty of this).  Now, your target audience just wants to watch a movie about other people getting high. You have a likable main character one can relate to and put him in a situation we can all relate to as well. Hilarity ensues and things are going good.  Then take all of that and throw it out the window and replace it instead with a plot involving various levels of an organized crime ring/ govt agency /any type of group so long as it has too many characters to keep track of, and make the plot so ornate that not only is it not believable, but you’d have a hard time following it even sober.

That’s what Kick-Ass is like.

The movie starts with the light-hearted idea of a boy who could try to become a real, crime fighting superhero and ends with him having become resistant to pain due to a Wolverine-like experience, involved with an organized crime operation disguised as a lumber wholesaler, two psychopathic masked vigilantes who have apparently been in the game for a long time but no one has ever heard of them, a plot to trick Kick-Ass into the arms of said crime organization so they could torture and then kill him live on webcam for the whole world to see based on the misguided fact that they believe Kick-Ass killed their drug dealers, said plot involves the crime King Pin’s own son to dress as a similarly lame superhero to gain Kick-Ass’s trust, and a hilarious scene with Nick Cage’s Big Daddy character burning to death all the while shouting in that ridiculous fake voice he put on for the character.

Too.  Much. Lame. Plot. Sometimes, less  really IS more.

All in all, if you are one of the people who claim this movie has become one of your top favorite films of all time, you need to watch more films.  Kick-Ass sucked ass and if I had the choice to do it again, I wouldn’t have even wasted the few seconds it would take to download a pirated version let alone pay money to see it.

I went to log into WoW for the last time today, having made the decision to go ahead and cancel my account, only to find that the account was already closed.  I hadn’t logged in in about a week, but I must’ve canceled the subscription right after renewing for three months, preventing it from automatically billing me. It’s funny, a part of me must’ve known then that any longer wasn’t needed.

This was the last of gaming in my life and I feel ready to move on from it.   MMO gaming has been the biggest hurdle for me over the last 10 years as I’ve slipped in and out of addiction with various titles.  Whilst a part of me will always want to renew that old Everquest account, or read about WoW’s next expansion, I know it’s for the better if I don’t.  I feel free from it, in a way I never have before. I’m not giving these things up because I feel some responsibility to do so now that Little Doodle is about to rock my world, merely I am letting these things go as I feel ready to do so, and ready to move on. I don’t think I’ll ever return to WoW, a part of me feels I “beat the game,” having been there, done that, and got the achievement to boot.

But I am very grateful for the time I spent in WoW, because without it I would’ve never met my husband.  Two people, so perfect for each other, on opposite sides of the globe should so happen to meet in an online game and fall in love.  I am very grateful to have met him, and now we are married and expecting a little one and our love continues to grow.  I also met some really awesome people through our guild as well.

It’s a shame it was already closed though, I guess the gold shall be buried with the characters and not given away lol.

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Really cool video. Puts things into perspective of just how small we are!

Random photos I’ve saved over the last couple years, posted for your enjoyment/horror.