I don't update this blog daily or regularly. You see that I spend more time on my other blog (http://trylobyte.wordpress.com/). This place is where I would put any thoughts that I have on my favourite show Lost. It's not meant to be a big fan site where every character and episode information is available.
So here's a theory I have that shows a pattern on the themes of each season finale. It can also help to predict themes of future seasons. So here it is, "The Seasonal Thematic Pattern Theory"
For every season finale of Lost, there are two types of cliffhangers: Primary and Secondary. The themes of the primary cliffhanger will be carried over the next season to serve as its major theme. The theme of the secondary cliffhanger (clfh) is the theme of the season after that. Confused? Doesn't make any sense? Here's an example:
Season 1
Hatch door blown up (Primary clfh) & Walt kidnapped by Others (Secondary clfh)
The theme of the primary clfh was the Hatch which was the dominant theme of the second season. The theme of the secondary clfh was the Others which obviously was the main theme of the third season.
Season 2
Jack, Kate, Sawyer captured (Primary clfh) & Penny (Secondary clfh)
The primary clfh involves the Others (the theme of the next season) while the secondary clfh was about the possibility of rescue (what looks to be the theme of the upcoming fourth season).
Here's a diagram form of the theory:
As you can see from the diagram, I predict that the real 'end game' of the show would be first revealed at the season finale of the fourth season as a secondary cliffhanger (marked on the diagram as a question mark). I also made several other predictions as well such as the theme of the 4th and 5th season. The upcoming 4th season would probably be about 'Rescue'. It will show how the survivors get rescued and leave the island. But as you all know, something is wrong and they need to go back to the island. Thus the fifth season will be about their 'Return'.
This theory can also be used to see who opens the season premiere. The previous three seasons were about the Survivors, Hatch and the Others so the seasons were opened by Jack, Desmond and Juliet respectively. With this theory, we know that the next two seasons will be about 'Rescue' and 'Return'. Therefore, the character that opens these seasons will have to be connected to their respective theme.
The fourth season is about 'Rescue' so I think it will open with a new character aboard Naomi's freighter. The fifth season will be about 'Return' so probably that season will introduce a new character (or a new set of characters) who would be important in getting the survivors return to the island.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Season pattern theory
Thursday, November 22, 2007
NOTICE: This is now a LOST Blog
I have decided to make this blog a "Lost" theme blog. From now on, non-related Lost post will be at my other blog http://trylobyte.wordpress.com. I'll update this post later.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Minor updates
This blog is still work in progress (it will always be work in progress anyway). I did some very minor updates. Firstly, I changed the title of my blog from boredom corner to Nman's corner (like i said 'very minor' updates) because Boredom corner doesn't sound nice. Secondly, I've added a list of links and I called it 'Nman's Internet Habit' because those are the websites that I visit everytime I browse the internet. Those are the so called 'essentials'. I think you could get an idea of what kinda person i am or what interest me from those links.
The blog is still new and I don't even know if people are visiting...hehe...sometimes I feel like I don't know who I'm writing to. If you stumble upon this blog feel free to put a comment. Just a 'hi!' is enough :-)
Monday, November 12, 2007
Stephen King's The Stand
It's been tough for Lost fans for the past few months because we have to wait till February next year for a new season instead of this Fall. What's even more depressing is that we might get to see only 8 new episodes next year if the the writers' strike does not stop immediately. To get my Lost "fix" I decided to buy The Stand a novel by Stephen King which the writers of Lost have mentioned to be their inspiration for the show. This can be clearly seen from the many parallels between the novel and the tv show (I'll save that for another post). Anyway, I finished it in two weeks and it is easily one of my favourite novel. Furthermore, this is my first Stephen King novel (I've only watch movie adaptations of his work)
**BEWARE OF MAJOR SPOILERS**
Plot
The novel is thick (approx. 1300 pages) and it has an evolving story. It started as an account of the fall of the American society due to an outbreak of a deadly virus (created by the government of course) through the eyes of several characters who mysteriously are immuned to it. By the middle of the book the story shifted gear into some sort of "road trip" story where the characters travel across America and meeting new characters. Eventually, the survivors are divided into two camps: the "good guys" at Boulder, Colorado under Mother Abigail (a 108 years old black woman who talks to God) and the "bad guys" at Sin City itself, Las Vegas ruled by Randall Flagg aka the dark man aka Walkin dude. By this time, the story changes into a socio-political commentary where our heroes tries to rebuild civilization from scratch. Towards the end, some of our heroes make a 'Stand' against Flagg at Las Vegas with a surprise ending that some readers may dislike.
Characters
You could say that I've basically ruined the whole plot in the last paragraph but the real strength of the novel is not the plot but the characters. This novel is long and the story drags in the first half of the book but slow plot development is compensated with deep character development. By the end of the book, you will feel as if you've known these characters for a long time. Stu, Frannie, Glen, Harold Lauder, Nick, Larry Underwood, Tom Cullen, Randall Flagg, THE TRASHCAN MAN!!! and even minor characters such as the Kid and Rat man are all simply unforgettable. What makes it more depressing is that more than half of the main characters don't make it till the end of the novel!
I like all the characters and have enjoyed reading them but if I have to pick I would say Larry Underwood and Glen Bateman. Larry is a cocky, short tempered, one hit wonder rock star who turned into one of the leaders of the survivors and made a huge sacrifice at the end. Glen is an old pessimistic sociologist who always comes up with theories that actually prophesised the events of the novel (eg. the Society A & Society B hypothesis). His 'confrontation' with Randall Flagg is one of my favourite part of the book.
The Ending **SPOILERS**
I know there are people who hated the conclusion at Las Vegas. Why didn't the 'Hand of God' just destroy Flagg in the beginning? Personally, I believe that the 'Hand of God' can only be summoned until the characters reached their so called 'redemption' or apotheosis in their personal journey. This story isn't simply about good vs evil, its about the individual journey that these characters take. Glen was an atheist (Or an agnostic, i can't remember) but later he accepted his fate when he was sent by Abigail to go West. Out of the four guys that went West, he was the strongest and most ready to face death. Consequently, he got killed first but not before laughhing his ass off at Randall. But hey, maybe Stephen King was just plain lazy and drunk when he wrote about the Hand of God but whatever the real reason behind the 'Hand of God' I like stick with my explanation.
As for the Epilogue where Randall Flagg is alive, that fits in with the theme of Good vs Evil where instead of one side winning over another, they are locked into an eternal battle.
In short, I highly recommend this book. I hope they can adapt this into the big screen but since its long so it would probably divided into 2 or 3 movies. Yeah I know, there was a miniseries in which I remember watching when I was a kid. I can't remember how faithful the miniseries was to the novel, it was so long ago.
**BEWARE OF MAJOR SPOILERS**
Plot
The novel is thick (approx. 1300 pages) and it has an evolving story. It started as an account of the fall of the American society due to an outbreak of a deadly virus (created by the government of course) through the eyes of several characters who mysteriously are immuned to it. By the middle of the book the story shifted gear into some sort of "road trip" story where the characters travel across America and meeting new characters. Eventually, the survivors are divided into two camps: the "good guys" at Boulder, Colorado under Mother Abigail (a 108 years old black woman who talks to God) and the "bad guys" at Sin City itself, Las Vegas ruled by Randall Flagg aka the dark man aka Walkin dude. By this time, the story changes into a socio-political commentary where our heroes tries to rebuild civilization from scratch. Towards the end, some of our heroes make a 'Stand' against Flagg at Las Vegas with a surprise ending that some readers may dislike.
Characters
You could say that I've basically ruined the whole plot in the last paragraph but the real strength of the novel is not the plot but the characters. This novel is long and the story drags in the first half of the book but slow plot development is compensated with deep character development. By the end of the book, you will feel as if you've known these characters for a long time. Stu, Frannie, Glen, Harold Lauder, Nick, Larry Underwood, Tom Cullen, Randall Flagg, THE TRASHCAN MAN!!! and even minor characters such as the Kid and Rat man are all simply unforgettable. What makes it more depressing is that more than half of the main characters don't make it till the end of the novel!
I like all the characters and have enjoyed reading them but if I have to pick I would say Larry Underwood and Glen Bateman. Larry is a cocky, short tempered, one hit wonder rock star who turned into one of the leaders of the survivors and made a huge sacrifice at the end. Glen is an old pessimistic sociologist who always comes up with theories that actually prophesised the events of the novel (eg. the Society A & Society B hypothesis). His 'confrontation' with Randall Flagg is one of my favourite part of the book.
The Ending **SPOILERS**
I know there are people who hated the conclusion at Las Vegas. Why didn't the 'Hand of God' just destroy Flagg in the beginning? Personally, I believe that the 'Hand of God' can only be summoned until the characters reached their so called 'redemption' or apotheosis in their personal journey. This story isn't simply about good vs evil, its about the individual journey that these characters take. Glen was an atheist (Or an agnostic, i can't remember) but later he accepted his fate when he was sent by Abigail to go West. Out of the four guys that went West, he was the strongest and most ready to face death. Consequently, he got killed first but not before laughhing his ass off at Randall. But hey, maybe Stephen King was just plain lazy and drunk when he wrote about the Hand of God but whatever the real reason behind the 'Hand of God' I like stick with my explanation.
As for the Epilogue where Randall Flagg is alive, that fits in with the theme of Good vs Evil where instead of one side winning over another, they are locked into an eternal battle.
In short, I highly recommend this book. I hope they can adapt this into the big screen but since its long so it would probably divided into 2 or 3 movies. Yeah I know, there was a miniseries in which I remember watching when I was a kid. I can't remember how faithful the miniseries was to the novel, it was so long ago.
Welcome to my Corner!
As you can see from the title (Boredom corner) I created this blog just out of boredom. **EDIT: It's no longer called Boredom Corner** But offcourse boredom alone doesn't force you to make a blog, there are other reasons as well. Such as:
- I always have several thoughts/ideas or opinions that i just keep in my mind. Storing your thoughts in your head for a very long time isn't a good idea. So this blog could act as my way putting those thoughts out of my head.
- When I started blogging back in 2005 with "MSN Space" nobody i knew was blogging. Now almost everyone i know is blogging!! So i want to hop into the blogging bandwagon again. BTW, for those who are curious here's my old blog Yes, this one is basically a "remake" of my old MSN space (Even the title is the same!!). You can ignore that blog.
- I wanted to post comments on Darkufo, a Fan site of Lost the tv show (in case you can't see the obvious, yes i'm fan of Lost). The only way you could post comment on the site was to have a blogger account. So I joined blogger!
- I already have a Google account through my Gmail.
I can admit that this blog is work in progress. But hopefully it will grow unless I decided to pull the plug. I never intended this blog to last for a very long time but hey..who knows, we'll just see what happens. So I guess that's it for today (I think). Stay tuned for some random thoughts or musings from me.
Nman
PS; English is not my first language so I'm sorry if I butchered the language with horrible grammar. I'm trying my best :-)
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