LOST
Mini-essays for two of my favorite characters:
"There’s this dichotomy between his past and his present - that is, we know the evil things he did in the Republican Guard and we also know his character as he is on the island - brave, rational, polite, calm, totally fucking hawt (sorry!) - and it’s hard to reconcile those two sides of the man. And yet we’ve also seen him lose it, both with Sawyer and with Ben, so it's by no means a sure thing that he's progressed beyond what he once was. Sayid’s a scary fellow. He’s got a lot of anger and darkness inside, and most of the time he keeps the lid screwed on tight, but when the pressure gets to be too much and some of that darkness escapes - well, I wouldn’t want to be in the room with him when that happened!
But can Sayid be forgiven for the terrible things he did as a torturer? My conception of Sayid is that he is beyond forgiveness - that what he’s done is so unequivocally evil that there is no forgiveness possible. And I think he knows that and I think he continues to fight his demons anyway (with varying degrees of success) and to contribute as best he can to the little island society the survivors have created and to try, in his way, be a good man.
Isn’t it a heroic trait to continue to fight and strive for good when there is no hope of success? Think of Frodo carrying the Ring even though he doesn’t believe he’ll be able to reach Mordor or Aragorn facing down vast armies of orcs or Angel trying to atone for his centuries of sins or Harry Potter, a schoolboy untrained and untested, facing the might that is Voldemort. I’m not saying Sayid is that kind of hero - that kind of thing is more up Jack’s alley. I’m just saying that fighting against all odds - that’s pretty damned heroic and that’s where I think Sayid’s true heroism can be found - not in brave or daring acts on the island, but in the battle that wages inside of him, the battle for his soul, the battle that he's already lost. It’s a hopeless quest, which is why I find it heroic that he soldiers on knowing full well that he’s damned."
Rest of it is here.
". . . I do think he still regards Jack as his best friend on the island, even if that's never going to be reciprocated. Which is a sad recurring motif for Sawyer: Every time he does something unselfish, he's rebuffed. No wonder the guy wants to give up.
I think whether Sawyer wants to live or die depends on how accepted he feels by his fellow survivors. It's not just whether Kate loves him or Jack thinks of him as a friend, but that Claire trusts him with Aaron and Hurley stops by to hang out. Hurley seems to be the only one who can see through his jerky act to see that he's really just lonely. It does bother me that Sawyer is denied the chance to even choose whether he'll go on the mission to save Jack. For now it's just lovelorn, lonely, selfish Sawyer and that feels like a step backward for the show. But Sawyer put himself out there for Kate and since she made it clear she doesn't care, it does make a kind of sense that he'd retreat. So I guess he's always been a "one step forward, two steps back" kind of guy.
It's been suggested many times that Sawyer's ultimate fate is to sacfice himself to save someone else, that that is his redemption arc. Sawyer's self-esteem has never been very solid but (*tears up as I type this*) that is the one thing he could do for someone else, is to die for them. I don't know that's how it's going to go but I wouldn't be surprised, either."
Rest of it is here.
"There’s this dichotomy between his past and his present - that is, we know the evil things he did in the Republican Guard and we also know his character as he is on the island - brave, rational, polite, calm, totally fucking hawt (sorry!) - and it’s hard to reconcile those two sides of the man. And yet we’ve also seen him lose it, both with Sawyer and with Ben, so it's by no means a sure thing that he's progressed beyond what he once was. Sayid’s a scary fellow. He’s got a lot of anger and darkness inside, and most of the time he keeps the lid screwed on tight, but when the pressure gets to be too much and some of that darkness escapes - well, I wouldn’t want to be in the room with him when that happened!
But can Sayid be forgiven for the terrible things he did as a torturer? My conception of Sayid is that he is beyond forgiveness - that what he’s done is so unequivocally evil that there is no forgiveness possible. And I think he knows that and I think he continues to fight his demons anyway (with varying degrees of success) and to contribute as best he can to the little island society the survivors have created and to try, in his way, be a good man.
Isn’t it a heroic trait to continue to fight and strive for good when there is no hope of success? Think of Frodo carrying the Ring even though he doesn’t believe he’ll be able to reach Mordor or Aragorn facing down vast armies of orcs or Angel trying to atone for his centuries of sins or Harry Potter, a schoolboy untrained and untested, facing the might that is Voldemort. I’m not saying Sayid is that kind of hero - that kind of thing is more up Jack’s alley. I’m just saying that fighting against all odds - that’s pretty damned heroic and that’s where I think Sayid’s true heroism can be found - not in brave or daring acts on the island, but in the battle that wages inside of him, the battle for his soul, the battle that he's already lost. It’s a hopeless quest, which is why I find it heroic that he soldiers on knowing full well that he’s damned."
Rest of it is here.
". . . I do think he still regards Jack as his best friend on the island, even if that's never going to be reciprocated. Which is a sad recurring motif for Sawyer: Every time he does something unselfish, he's rebuffed. No wonder the guy wants to give up.
I think whether Sawyer wants to live or die depends on how accepted he feels by his fellow survivors. It's not just whether Kate loves him or Jack thinks of him as a friend, but that Claire trusts him with Aaron and Hurley stops by to hang out. Hurley seems to be the only one who can see through his jerky act to see that he's really just lonely. It does bother me that Sawyer is denied the chance to even choose whether he'll go on the mission to save Jack. For now it's just lovelorn, lonely, selfish Sawyer and that feels like a step backward for the show. But Sawyer put himself out there for Kate and since she made it clear she doesn't care, it does make a kind of sense that he'd retreat. So I guess he's always been a "one step forward, two steps back" kind of guy.
It's been suggested many times that Sawyer's ultimate fate is to sacfice himself to save someone else, that that is his redemption arc. Sawyer's self-esteem has never been very solid but (*tears up as I type this*) that is the one thing he could do for someone else, is to die for them. I don't know that's how it's going to go but I wouldn't be surprised, either."
Rest of it is here.