Why does everyone assume the Others are some evil brainwashing nogoodniks trying to exploit the weaknesses of the Losties in order to force them to join their cult? There were reasons to believe that before, even though we have heard that the Other only took the "good" people and that "we are the good guys". But the suburban housing and casual book club with normal bickering seems to be a HUGE clue that the Others are not some Satanic cult. They are not even anything like what I expected, which would be people in military uniforms of lab coats. The book club was a big shocker to me. I never would have imagined the Others as being from that type of mundane culture.

And what “evil” have the Others done? They have killed maybe one person or so. The Losties have done much worse. And any killing or violence by the Others seems like it could be justified from their perspective.

And what terrible evil things have they done with their prisoners? We know nothing of the survivors that were captured early on. Michael and Walt were set free. Sawyer was locked up but not treated bad. Kate was given a shower, clean clothes, and a nice breakfast. Jack had a nice pretty lady come and talk to her and give him food and water. Ooooh-these monsters!

And what did they do psychologically to Jack? They helped him finally let go of his obsession with what his father thinks about him (which the Island has been working on since the very first episode) and bring closure to his need to control the end of his marriage (which he certainly needs because his divorce was apparently all he was really thinking about while in the chamber). By doing so, they really helped him overcome his issues with obsession and control. Finally. Which Jack really needed. Again--Ooooh-these monsters!

People actually helping people with their issues and making them better people! Yikes! They must be twisted Nazi war criminals from a Satanic cult that live on an undetectable island just waiting for new “people toys” that they can play with to distract them from the boredom of yet another book club meeting. :)

I think the biggest thing about this series is the fact that good and evil are never clearly defined. That is how things are in the real world. Things aren't always black and white/good and evil. The others may be doing what they believe is in their best interests while the losties are doing the same thing. The others have done some pretty shady things such as kidnapping, murder (Goodwin), and the like but you're right, so have the losties. I'd say that oftentimes, we try to read into things in the show too much. I think that when all is said and done, the others will turn out to be the villains (at least Ben will anyway...the rest of them may just be subject to his tyranny.)

[COLOR=black]Why does everyone assume the Others are some evil brainwashing nogoodniks trying to exploit the weaknesses of the Losties in order to force them to join their cult? And what “evil” have the Others done?
You CAN'T be serious. :drowsy:

Let's see, Goodwin murdered a plane passenger for no reason. Ethan killed another passenger "Steve" by breaking nearly every bone in his body to force the Losties to let him abduct Claire. He also hung Charlie and left him for dead. Tom shot Sawyer and then he and the others on their tub BLEW UP the raft, leaving Michael, Jin & Sawyer to DIE. The Others were planning to cut Aaron out of Claire's body, instead of letting her give birth naturally, and it was implied that they were going to kill her. They've kidnapped SEVERAL children and dragged people away against their wills to presumably perform Mengele-type psychological experiments on them.

Um, yeah, I think "evil" kinda fits the bill. I'm not saying the Losties haven't screwed up, but they haven't gone out of their way to attack an innocent group of people either.

You CAN'T be serious. :drowsy:

Let's see, Goodwin murdered a plane passenger for no reason. Ethan killed another passenger "Steve"I cut it down to the people you've said the Others actualy killed. I haven't checked for sure. But not everyone can be saved. We don't know anything about the "passangers". As for the others you mentioned, I'm not sure they meant them any harm (other than maybe possibly Charlie, which would make sense if you needed sacrifical lamb to take out the drug addict that wouldn't have much hope of surviving on the island anyway).

They had to blow up the raft. They had to do other things to control their environment, some of which were not so nice. Dragging people away is not necessarily a bad thing. Would you rather spend your time on the island in the jungle rumming for fod and dealing with squabbles and tyring to find shelter, etc. or be forceably dragged away to be put up in a nice suburban-type house, where the other survivors may be?

I cut it down to the people you've said the Others actualy killed. I haven't checked for sure. But not everyone can be saved. By what right do the 'others' have to decide 'who' can be "saved" and who can't?

I'm not sure they meant them any harm (other than maybe possibly Charlie, which would make sense if you needed sacrifical lamb to take out the drug addict that wouldn't have much hope of surviving on the island anyway). Well, so it's okay to take one life in sacrafice? Is two okay? If so, what about three? Four?... btw, did you notice that Charlie did "survive" his drug habbit on the island?

Dragging people away is not necessarily a bad thing. Would you rather spend your time on the island in the jungle rumming for fod and dealing with squabbles and tyring to find shelter, etc. or be forceably dragged away to be put up in a nice suburban-type house, where the other survivors may be? The funny thing is, you make it sound as if they have a 'choice'.

They had to blow up the raft.
Why did they have to blow up the raft? Did they think a one armed Sawyer would paddle after them too fast?