Gotta admit

As a first time watcher some of the best things I find in this show are the backstories and how the characters all crossed paths at various points in their lives its such a cool writing choice and how everything is connected its really neat but I have to say the best thing about the show and I mean the BEST are Charlie and Hugo the depiction of each’s individual struggles both throughout the story on the island, in the back stories and even in the flash sideways are done so honest and factual.
I have to say I hold Hugo over Charlie though simply because we get a lot of addiction shows or characters who are addicts but we rarely get a good honest depiction of mental health and depression; there are several moments throughout the show where Hugo drops a little line and the words within it are so true and so hard hitting to those who have struggled, him alone constantly defending how he eats when he’s depressed is rarely even shown in shows that deal with depression. I think Lost handled and created the character of Hugo with such honesty and he is by far my fave on the show, though I have many lol. Watching this show in 2026 and knowing it started in 2004 just tells me how forward thinking they were when it came to Hugo, even with what they did with Charlie and him finally tossing those damn statues to then having them come back when Vincent brings one to him and he was like wtf man really?! But it just shows the all to real fact that if a dealer is making money off ur buys, they will call u when u stop buying believe me I’ve been there -_- not there now thankfully lol bt his arc went thru it all too from fighting it to hiding it to saying f all of it to redeeming to having it find him again all of that was so real without the way it is shown today, today when an addict is in a show more often than not your going to get a graphic depiction of it and the reality is you don’t need to trigger people to be impactful and that applies to more than just drugs in media too.
Anyway I’m babbling and I know my grammar is nil so…

TL:DR: I think Hugo and Charlie, especially Hugo were written extremely well and depicted mental health and drug addiction both accurately and ahead of their time in 2004 and without needing to be graphic and trigger the audience. :)

https://redd.it/1vflh5x
@lostbackup

Relationship talk time!

https://redd.it/1vfmtqs
@lostbackup

SPIDER MAN BRAND NEW DAY SPOILERS
https://redd.it/1vfuctu
@lostbackup

Hard to pick because they’re all so beautiful, but whose theme is your favorite?
https://youtu.be/X4GJx6cQwTk?is=lXC8w896t2Y-xvML

https://redd.it/1vfxrup
@lostbackup

Jack & Kate or Sawyer & Kate. Who actually belonged together?
https://redd.it/1vg3sri
@lostbackup

Starting LOST for the first time
https://redd.it/1vg8ixi
@lostbackup

Looking for some contemporaneous materials

Back when the show aired, one of the best parts of the experience was leaping up from the couch after an episode, scurrying to the computer room [i know\], and booting up msn messenger [i knowww\] to excitedly speculate with my best friend, the only person i ever met more into the show than me. A big part of the weekly ritual around that involved a sort of semi-official blog associated with the tv channel [we're Australian so i guess it would be channel 7?\] that would update soon after the airtime. whoever wrote it knew a lot more of The Lore than you could from just watching and would reference auxiliary stuff like the Hanso Foundation and so on as well as literary and scientific references in the show, but always with an air that they didn't know where it was going and were speculating right along with us.


Anyway i'm finally going to get to share Lost with someone new for the first time since it aired. I thought it could be fun to share that blog with them as we go. If it's been archived anywhere. I feel like a decade or so ago that would be a no-brainer and it would have a dedicated website but these days? who knows. Anyone got a lead?

https://redd.it/1vg9f6u
@lostbackup

Question about Nikki and Paolo

What was all the outrage with their characters? I’d read online that they were hated and their episode was hated.

I honestly didn’t think it was that bad. For those of you who watched it when it was live, what was the general feedback on it?

https://redd.it/1vgepi6
@lostbackup

What if, i mean what if? ( read body)
https://redd.it/1vgfiev
@lostbackup

Another LOST Forever font collage!
https://redd.it/1vgfnqm
@lostbackup

Is there any HD rip of the smoke monster sound effects?

All I've ever been able to find is sound clips from the show that include background noise and music. I was wondering if the isolated SFX have ever been leaked or anything like that, I'd like to use them for sampling purposes

https://redd.it/1vgixel
@lostbackup

I got a compliment on this I wore it out of the house.
https://redd.it/1vgm0px
@lostbackup

I wonder…

…if any episodes have their most important moment at the 4th minute, 8th minute, 5th minute etc? That would be a very cool Easter egg

https://redd.it/1vgn8xq
@lostbackup

Walt's offer isn't

Walt's offer from Hurley in the epilogue isn't to be the Island's protector, it's to be the new Smoke Monster/support system.

I like to believe that Mother was both or that a split in the roles didn't exist until the events of Across the Sea. So if the energy of the Man in Black was returned to the Island or Hurley, i think it works well if Walt is the recipient. And Hurley maybe doesn't have to throw him down the cave, Walt can shapeshift but still keep himself intact.

A couple fun connections and reasons this could be true:

\- Hurley has barely had any time as the protector, it's a weird turn around from the finale to give up the job right away

\- Hurley is pretty uncomfortable with combat and confrontation, Walt has a lot of bite back in arguments and is interested in knife throwing (also mirroring the Man in Black). I can see Hurley wanting to delegate the more intense role to someone he trusts

\- Walt has some amount of control over animals, the birds in Special and the missing piece Room 23. The Smoke Monster can do this with much more control, Vincent in his missing piece and the medusa spiders in Expose

\- Walt has some form of translocation in Abandoned. The monster does similar stuff like teleporting in Dead is Dead

\- Black smoke is used to signal Walt's kidnapping

\- It's cool if Danielle's quote about the monster being a security system has a kinder truth in the future

\- Hurley and Walt play backgammon several times in season 1, a fun mirror to the brothers favorite past time

And this is the two sides finally clicking into place. Mother was corrupt, possessive, and creepy, isolating the powers of the Island. The brothers were in a war for centuries, the Island at odds. And now two of the most kind hearted people take the helm, Hurley the Island’s keeper and Walt its guardian.

https://redd.it/1vgljpb
@lostbackup

Lost video game

I’m in the middle of another rewatch and was thinking a fun lost game would be playing as another survivor of the crash with the events of the show taking place around you but have your own story that runs along beside the show. Get to actually explore the island, run from the smoke monster, stumble across the jughead casing.

https://redd.it/1vgs8go
@lostbackup

Spoiler Whom do you trust less?

Whom do you trust less, Ben Linus or Charles Widmore?

https://redd.it/1vgulx3
@lostbackup

Let's talk about Charles Widmore

**EDIT: Since I've gotten two false accusations already - none of this is AI. Not generated, not checked or polished, zero AI was used here. I wrote every single word myself. I'm the mod who suggested and wrote the sub rule** ***banning*** **AI because I despise it. Please stop accusing me of using AI here. Thank you.**

And why he - not Ben - is the show's ultimate (human, not smoke) bad guy.

I don't post often, but one of the ways where I think the show does a slight disservice to the audience is the underdevelopment of Widmore. Ben was introduced earlier and as a direct threat to our survivors, while Widmore initially just seemed like a rich jerk who didn't like Desmond and I think this impression is where a lot of viewers get stuck because it takes several re-watches to really see Widmore for what he is and even then, you have to be actively looking for it.

I love Ben, completely and unironically, a lot of you know that - and I tend to get heavily downvoted when I defend him. And that's fine, I know it's how people on Reddit express disagreement... but I wanted to at least compile Widmore's actions here to hopefully turn the tide a bit toward people really understanding that while Ben is far from perfect and makes a lot of bad choices he is, at the end of it all, nowhere near the monster Widmore is.

Most of this is fact, some is inference from context clues and a teeny bit is theory.

* **First, his emotional and psychological abuse of his own children**
* He stole years of happiness from Desmond and Penny by constantly pushing them apart - intercepting Penny's letters and degrading Desmond, manipulating him into thinking he wasn't good enough for her. Why? In my opinion, he knew from Eloise that Desmond would eventually be on the Island and all Widmore wants is to get back there. So, by separating them, he hoped to track Desmond to the Island so he could exploit it. I believe that was the entire purpose of the boat race.
* He ridiculed Daniel for his memory issues, confessing that he was the one who desecrated 300+ graves in order to stage the 815 ocean crash (a crime for which he frames Ben) and then laughs, telling Daniel he won't remember anyway. Then, with a smile on his face and knowing precisely what will happen, sends his son to the Island to die.
* **His four confirmed and possibly five mass murders**
* The 50s Army camp (Richard led, Widmore participated)
* The Purge of Dharma (Widmore ordered)
* The freighter mercenary crew who, on Widmore's orders, planned to capture Ben and kill *everyone else* on the Island. (This includes the Others, our survivors, multiple children and potentially Jacob.)
* The Ajira survivors - this one is up for debate, but Widmore had more opportunity and Zoe was remarkably calm with the pile of dead bodies before the pylons were even up so I don't think it was the monster.
* The Others in the mortar attack - this one included children again as well as several of the remaining candidates.
* **His manipulation of the freighter crew AND John Locke**
* He lies to the captain and Lapidus, at the very least, blaming Ben for the fake 815 crash
* We already talked about his manipulation of Daniel
* He also potentially lies to Naomi about the crash (part of her auditioning Miles is seeing if he can 'sense' the grave pictures and purchase order for an old plane that the dead guy has) and almost certainly lies to her about who is responsible for The Purge since she tells Miles Ben did it. It's possible she knew and was lying to Miles, but Widmore lying is more likely.
* It's doubtful he needed to encourage Keamy much, but it seems clear the mercenary crew think they're capturing a dangerous killer rather than being given orders by one.
* He fed Locke a load of bullshit about trying to get rid of Ben so Locke could take over when we know all he wants is to use Locke to get back to the Island.
* **His attempted murders of Danielle and Alex**
* He orders Ben to "exterminate" Danielle and then, when Ben returns having

been unable to do it, orders him to kill infant Alex. Ben refuses this order in front of some of the Others. (This along with learning the Island chose Ben as a child is, in my opinion, a big source of the enmity Widmore has toward Ben. Widmore does not take kindly to disrespect.)
* Ben takes Alex to keep her safe and does so until Widmore finally kills her and her mother sixteen years later.
* **His various physical abuses**
* As a teenager he tries to cut off Juliet's hand simply for being on the Island.
* Also as a teenager he snaps the next of a fellow Other (Cunningham) and then runs to camp telling Richard "we were outnumbered but I escaped" heavily implying that Locke, Juliet and Sawyer killed Cunningham, not him.
* He's on video having one of Ben's people brutally beaten in another attempt to find the Island.
* Once on the Island he fries one of his own team members alive in the reverse Faraday cage for no other reason than that he didn't move fast enough.
* He tortures Desmond in that same cage.

And he does all of this to exploit - not protect - the Island. I also do not believe for a second that Jacob actually showed him the "error of \[his\] ways." I think he told Jacob what he wanted to hear in order to secure an invitation back to the Island, the one thing he'd been working toward for the entire series.

**Widmore has no empathy. He shows no remorse. He has no redemption arc. He is an unrepentant villain.**

https://redd.it/1vh581w
@lostbackup