Lost Blogging Collective Q&A - Week 10

Hey all, just a little Q&A this week after last week's bumper edition - normal 2 question service resumes next week!

For those that don't know, the Lost Blogging Collective is a group of 23 bloggers from around the world who email, comment on each others blogs, tweet and generally chat about Lost, trying to bring as many cool Lost fans together as possible and sharing each others opinions, theories and ideas before Lost finishes - and beyond! So please, take the time to check out each member's blog and find your favourites - they all bring something different to the table. You can find the links to each in the first blogroll to your right!

Each week, we all answer a couple of questions loosely based on that week's episode of Lost. This week, the question is:

Now that Lost has went totally, 100% sci-fi on us, do you think the deaths of the likes of Charlie and Daniel were "worth it" for the story we are getting told now, or would you rather have had more of their original storyline at the cost of this flash-sideways universe storyline?

Karen @ Karen's Lost Notebook

http://karenslostnotebook.blogspot.com/

I was very sad when Charlie "died", not so much when Daniel "died".  This is LOST so what does dead really mean?  Dead= "Gone".

But I feel their being "eliminated" is all part of the (not only the journey) but game as well.  So with that, it must have been "worth it" to one side of the chess board for the removal of those pieces.

As far as their original story lines, I feel at this point we got the information we were supposed to get.  From what we saw this week these two (people/pieces/players/pawns) still have a place in influencing the "Island" game/story.

It has been my opinion the sideways and the other on "Island" and off "Island" events are all blurred together and have always been.  I believe with the convergence of all of this that everything will serve a purpose and make sense in the end.

Paul @ Room 23

http://lostroom23.blogspot.com/

No I love the Flash Sideways so much. Sure it was sad when Charlie and Daniel died, but they went out in a great way. And like they say in Lost even if you die you’re never gone for good. The Flash Sideways has been such an awesome way to say goodbye to all of the characters. It’s been such a great way to reminisce about all of the great moments during the past 5 and a half years. Plus as we all now know from the Desmond episode there’s a definite connection between the Flash Sideways world and the island.

Karen @ Sam's I Am

http://4mombymom.blogspot.com/

I can deal with the death of Daniel for the sake of science, but Charlie...not so much.  I'm still not sure we are 100% science.  I still feel like there is a lot of mythology to be discovered between Jacob and MIB.

Sagacious Penguin @ Stuff And Nonsense

http://sagaciouspenguin.blogspot.com/

Definitely worth it. I loved both characters, but thought their deaths were worth it at the time, too. In "Through The Looking Glass" we needed a tragedy in the midst of triumph in order to frame/foreshadow Jack's flash-forward traumatized state. While we weren't sure what all he'd been through at that point, we got a taste of it with the loss of Charlie. Though we know the arrival of the freighter was "the Beginning of the End" in retrospect, at the time it was a HUGE victory for our heroes and a major defeat for the Others. To earn such things require sacrifices from a story-telling standpoint, and there can be no greater storytelling loss then to put a period at the end of a great character's story. For Faraday, his death was a similar impetus: While Juliet functioned as the Charlie-like sacrifice, that came with the "victory" of detonating Jughead in the midst of the Incident, Faraday's death defined his entire role on the show. He and Eloise, and the story of a mother knowingly sacrificing her son for the sake of time-continuity, are at the heart of the show. Eloise and Faraday have kept this timeline rigorously held to the destiny it's meant to arrive at. And while Altered Universe Eloise may not be willing to sacrifice for the existence of the Original Timeline, AU Faraday seems willing. In both universes, these two are the guardians of time, and Faraday's death is the variable (and his journal is the violation) that's allowed Eloise the knowledge to set them on this path: Farday's death humanizes what would otherwise be empty sci-fi.    

Chris @ Super Duper Stream

http://superduperstream.blogspot.com/

I don't know if they were necessarily "worth it", but I am certainly glad we are getting to revisit these characters. The only downfall is - these are not the same characters we have grown to love (and in some cases hate, but at least we feel for them). One way of looking at it is that Lost has introduced a dozen or so "new" characters, but hopefully, with Desmond's new 'powers' being awoken by Charlie, we can begin seeing our old friends and these new people converge into some singular entity - one that is equal parts new and exciting, but also old and familiar.

But what I wouldn't give to have more episodes from Charlie, Daniel and even Boone before they perished. I think a lot of Lost characters still had a lot of story to tell, and for that I rue the 'end date' decision, but we can't all have our cake and eat it. I guess the writer's were forced with a choice of whether to indefinitely tell the 'character' storyline until ratings dropped so far the show got cancelled, then rush a 'mystery' ending, or to rush the 'character' aspect in order to tell a proper 'mystery' story. The way I see it, we got 3 good seasons of 'character' with a hint of mystery, then 2 good seasons of 'mystery' with a hint of character, and this season we are essentially getting both. Would I have done it differently? Yes. But am I upset with how the writer's have chosen to tell their story? No, not in the slightest. If Charlie had to die in order to get us to where we are, then so be it, who am I to judge?