I don't think Sawyer should be as defended as he is, but I can see why fans think he should be. Sawyer is far more real than Jack is. Jack is such a good guy, has a perfect job, and is far more respected. Sawyer is not that person. Because of the JackxKatexSawyer love triangle, the two men have been compared and competed against each other in every possible way.
Sawyer is just more realistic than Jack is, much less perfect. He's heavily flawed and acts on impulse, so perhaps that is why the fans defend his actions.
But I think this need for revenge ended with the end of season three, because this revenge was then accomplished. Which opened the door to Sawyer letting go of his personal demons and becoming a better person.
You didn't find this disturbing? I did. I was disgusted. That was the ONLY way for James to deal with his parents' deaths? Murder the man who had swindled them? All it did was blind him from the fact that his parents - especially his father - were just as responsible for what eventually happened to them, as Anthony Cooper.
His parents were responsible too, certainly. But they were dead. The only person left out of that carnage was the conman who swindled them.
And if it were in the real world, certainly, I'd agree that murdering the man who swindled his parents would be disgusting. But this isn't the real world. This is the island. Morals and ethics run a bit differently there. No need to look further than Jack. On the island, not only was he a willing partner in torture, but he condoned the use of poison to try and keep a lover from leaving, considered it morally acceptable to let a child die because he didn't like the man the child would grow up to become, and, perhaps most importantly, since this is what Jack was doing while Sawyer was murdering Cooper, made plans to blow up a large group of people.
Every single one of our main Losties, perhaps with the exception of Hurley, is morally reprehensible in some way. Are any of them people we would want as friends in the real world? I highly doubt it.
This was more than about Jack being right or wrong in the past. This was about James being unable to get past Juliet's death. This was about James being unable to give Jack or hardly anyone else a second chance. This is a trait that has been around since the beginning.
Neither Jack or James are perfect. And neither of them ever will be. But this article isn't about Jack's flaws. This is about James' flaws and how they culminated into the disaster that he managed to cause in "The Candidate".
If you can admit that Jack made a huge mistake in continuing Farrady's plan to set off Jughead, why is it so difficult to accept that an equally flawed James made a big mistake in pulling those wires from that bomb? He fucked up, just as Jack had fucked in the S5 finale.
Being unable to get past Juliet's death? She died barely a week ago in Island time. I know I wouldn't be thinking clearly yet if my lover only died a week ago.
James has given numerous people second chances (Juliet being the main one - remember, at their first meeting, she tasered him). He even gave Jack second, and third, and possibly more, chances. He didn't deserve another one.
I don't see anyone denying that James fucked up by pulling those wires. I don't think even James denies that. But based on past experience, it was the only conclusion that he could have come to. Not to mention we don't even know for certain if Jack was right in this case - for all we know, the bomb could have gone off anyways because Jack carried it onto the submarine, thus it counting as them killing each other.
You can defend James all you want. As far as I'm concerned, he fucked up. Like Jack and Kate, he has been fucking up for a long time. What happened in "The Candidate" was his latest fuck up.
You might as well admit that we're never going to agree on this matter.
"This essay barely mentions James in seasons four and five, which I think is a mistake, since they are extremely important to his character - perhaps the most important. There's also scant attention paid to the fact that the episodes up to/including 5x08 and the episodes after/including 5x08 take place three years apart. In this time, James has grown up and built a life for himself. Got the girl and lived in peace - something that he hasn't had since he was a child."
Those years with Juliet and his "heroic" acts in S4 did not develop Sawyer's character. Especially since his habit of scapegoating resumed following Juliet's death.
I don't like Jack, never have. Jack is not a good guy. Yes, it is true that Sawyer has done more criminal acts than Jack has, and he built a career on it to boot. But Jack is not squeaky clean either, and that's one of the things that tends to annoy me about Team Jack - they don't acknowledge Jack's wrongdoings, and there's a laundry list of those (stalking his ex-wife, assaulting his father, assaulting
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Sawyer is just more realistic than Jack is, much less perfect. He's heavily flawed and acts on impulse, so perhaps that is why the fans defend his actions.
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You didn't find this disturbing? I did. I was disgusted. That was the ONLY way for James to deal with his parents' deaths? Murder the man who had swindled them? All it did was blind him from the fact that his parents - especially his father - were just as responsible for what eventually happened to them, as Anthony Cooper.
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And if it were in the real world, certainly, I'd agree that murdering the man who swindled his parents would be disgusting. But this isn't the real world. This is the island. Morals and ethics run a bit differently there. No need to look further than Jack. On the island, not only was he a willing partner in torture, but he condoned the use of poison to try and keep a lover from leaving, considered it morally acceptable to let a child die because he didn't like the man the child would grow up to become, and, perhaps most importantly, since this is what Jack was doing while Sawyer was murdering Cooper, made plans to blow up a large group of people.
Every single one of our main Losties, perhaps with the exception of Hurley, is morally reprehensible in some way. Are any of them people we would want as friends in the real world? I highly doubt it.
Reply
Neither Jack or James are perfect. And neither of them ever will be. But this article isn't about Jack's flaws. This is about James' flaws and how they culminated into the disaster that he managed to cause in "The Candidate".
If you can admit that Jack made a huge mistake in continuing Farrady's plan to set off Jughead, why is it so difficult to accept that an equally flawed James made a big mistake in pulling those wires from that bomb? He fucked up, just as Jack had fucked in the S5 finale.
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James has given numerous people second chances (Juliet being the main one - remember, at their first meeting, she tasered him). He even gave Jack second, and third, and possibly more, chances. He didn't deserve another one.
I don't see anyone denying that James fucked up by pulling those wires. I don't think even James denies that. But based on past experience, it was the only conclusion that he could have come to. Not to mention we don't even know for certain if Jack was right in this case - for all we know, the bomb could have gone off anyways because Jack carried it onto the submarine, thus it counting as them killing each other.
Reply
You can defend James all you want. As far as I'm concerned, he fucked up. Like Jack and Kate, he has been fucking up for a long time. What happened in "The Candidate" was his latest fuck up.
You might as well admit that we're never going to agree on this matter.
Reply
Those years with Juliet and his "heroic" acts in S4 did not develop Sawyer's character. Especially since his habit of scapegoating resumed following Juliet's death.
I don't like Jack, never have. Jack is not a good guy. Yes, it is true that Sawyer has done more criminal acts than Jack has, and he built a career on it to boot. But Jack is not squeaky clean either, and that's one of the things that tends to annoy me about Team Jack - they don't acknowledge Jack's wrongdoings, and there's a laundry list of those (stalking his ex-wife, assaulting his father, assaulting ( ... )
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