Board 8 > Don't tell me what I can't do: a 10-year LOST retrospective/character ranking

(+) Yeah! (+)

colliding posted...

a nothing burger like claire

Oof, I stopped being interested in Claire after Charlie died, which is pretty damning.

Seems like they just kinda sucked at writing female characters in general, with only a few exceptions.

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colliding posted...

unlike ana-lucia, kate is unlikeable but not on purpose, so I understand the hate. she's meant to be a flawed person for sure, but the writers still want us to empathize with her.

yeah, i think this is a good summary of it. kate is pretty + badass + flawed, and we're obviously supposed to root for her - but she never reaches a point where i actually want to root for her
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They sucked at writing a lot of characters.

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Juliet is probably the show's best female character. can't see any other viable option.

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I should note I watched every season of the show leading up to the last season multiple times I loved it so much.

And then I watched the last season and have never touched the show again. I just can't.

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colliding posted...

Juliet is probably the show's best female character. can't see any other viable option.

Probably yeah, but even then she could never have any facial expression other than slightly female joker smirk

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Juliet is far and away the most interesting female character on the show, and it's not a high bar to clear. Rousseau is probably second, Rose is decent, Sun could've been good but they didn't have a clue what to do with her, and most of the rest are just passive Nice Women who exist for the sake of the male characters around them (Claire, Penny, Libby, Alex), or huge assholes.

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Alex is a badass who is good on her own merits and I won't hear otherwise, and Sun is pretty great, otherwise andylt's assessment is pretty spot on.

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Pretty obvious spoilers: the top of the list is very male-centric

GameStonk posted...

Pretty obvious spoilers: the top of the list is very male-centric

Same here. My male-to-female ratio in the top 10 is 7-3, and in the top 5 it's 4-1.

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I hope Keamy gets his due respect in this list though.

I love that character for so many reasons, but I'll wait until he gets on the list to discuss it.

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Underleveled posted...

Claire didn't appear in season 5 at all, so I think it's fair to call it a core 8.

Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Hurley/Sayid/Jin/Sun/Locke are the only characters to appear, credited with the main cast, for all six seasons.

That being said, if we include Claire as core, then we ought to include Charlie as well. Even though he died halfway through the show, he was just as important and prominent as those nine while he was alive.

To add onto this, if you count Charlie as core then I feel like you also have to count Ben and Juliet as core, even if they weren't around from the beginning. Ben especially is more core to the plot than characters like Sun and Jin.

But I imagine TC just means characters around in the beginning who survived into the final season (well except Rose of course).

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mnkboy907 posted...

But I imagine TC just means characters around in the beginning who survived into the final season (well except Rose of course).

yeah, it was kind of just a throwaway grouping of the Oceanic characters who lasted from season 1-6

mnkboy907 posted...

To add onto this, if you count Charlie as core then I feel like you also have to count Ben and Juliet as core, even if they weren't around from the beginning. Ben especially is more core to the plot than characters like Sun and Jin.

Okay and if we're including Ben and Juliet then we should include Desmond and THERE I really think that's the absolute bottom cutoff point, but yeah I'm fine with it just being the 8 main characters in all six seasons.

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The polar bear is the real cut off.

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The only main character is the fishbiscuit.

Also, in honor of Kate getting ranked, @AlecTrevelyan006



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I totally agree with the common opinion that Nikki and Paulo sucked. But they probably died in the most horrific way. Imagine waking up to see you were being buried alive and couldn't do anything about it

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Mega Mana posted...

The only main character is the fishbiscuit.

Also, in honor of Kate getting ranked, @AlecTrevelyan006

this image will literally never get old to me
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The LOST and 24 memes were incredible

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man that image really take me back

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DeepsPraw posted...

man that image really take me back

Did anyone notice the ocean?

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Kate is 3 spots too high.

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Mega Mana posted...

Did anyone notice the ocean?

This just brought a flood of memories back for me.

LA Exit

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I personally dont mind Kate, but I can definitely understand the criticism. Ill take her over Claire (especially evil Claire) any day, though.

And yeah Juliet is pretty easily the best female main character. Sun is also pretty good.

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Juliet single-handed saved the series by exploding the world and ending the series with season 5, so she is A++

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Juliet would be my #2 favorite character!

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I was going to save this for her write-up, but rewatching the show as a 32 year old and Juliet now takes the title of Hottest Chick on the Island for me.

My teenage self used to think it was Kate LOL

GameStonk posted...

I was going to save this for her write-up, but rewatching the show as a 32 year old and Juliet now takes the title of Hottest Chick on the Island for me.

My teenage self used to think it was Kate LOL

For me, at the time, it was Alex Rousseau. Don't worry, she was older than me back then.

Now a days, it's Kate probably. I thought she looked generic back then. I thought Libby, Juliet, Shannon, and Claire were all better than her back then.

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https://youtu.be/ET_28HOS8iI

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Hmm, yeah I can agree to Juliet being the hottest chick on the island. Hottest overall is Penny.

Shout out to Naomi though.

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Taggage. Lost is still my favorite show of all time so I'm looking forward to reading through this.

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Ill tag this.

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I'm in the minority but I thought Ana-Lucia was one of the hotter chicks on the show, although Sun is pretty fine too. Sun is one of the better female characters despite getting reduced to "Do you know where to find Jin?" from post Season 4 and on.

Seriously she didnt even get pulled back to the 70s like everyone else did. She takes a huge backseat after returning to the Island

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wallmasterz posted...

https://youtu.be/ET_28HOS8iI

superior version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxA1Bzb-JMU


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#34. Michael Dawson
<img src="http://abload.de/img/1400528522676zqsui.jpg">

Michael is one of a number of characters on LOST who seems to just make a series of bad decisions over and over, essentially gaining nothing. And once again, that highlights another major flaw in the show's writing, summed up by a single person, in that they clearly do not know how to end a storyline without simply killing off the character.

What is the point of Michael's entire arc? He bargains, betrays, and murders all to ensure that he can leave the Island with Walt--who then promptly doesn't want to see him anymore and is eventually committed to a mental institution. Great! Really glad we spent two seasons WAAAAALLLTing just to have one character in an asylum and the other blown up on a ship for whatever reason.

Outside of the general futility of his arc, Michael is also one of the most grating personalities on the show. He is constantly getting into other peoples' business, constantly whining and bitching, and is the most unpleasant character from an aesthetic point of view. Seriously, I really just hate the sound of his voice and his overall sweatiness--call me shallow, but that's how it is! Michael brings nothing of interest to the story beyond building the boat and killing off Ana Lucia, and his only saving grace is that he's not around for as many episodes as he could have been.

I feel like Michael is vastly underrated in the show.

Ultimately, his story could have been better realized, but as a character it makes sense that he spent two seasons WAAAAAALTing and trying to actually make a raft to get off the island, which is more than a lot of characters had tried doing in the first season. Yeah, he sowed a lot of discord, but he felt like a real dude more than most of the characters on the island. His betrayal and murder of Ana Lucia makes sense that Walt is kidnapped and he's willing to do anything for him, especially given the insanity of the island already.

It sucks that Walt ends up in a mental institution, yeah. And frankly, his story could have ended there, but I felt his post-leave story was good. He was a man wracked with guilt, unable to escape it, and eventually came to terms with wanting to atone for what he did, since he couldn't live with himself after his son refused to talk with him.

I dunno, I get people finding Michael annoying, but I felt he was more real than most people in the show and that's why I gravitated towards him. He just wanted to leave this hellscape with his kid. That's easy and relatable.

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

I dunno, I get people finding Michael annoying, but I felt he was more real than most people in the show and that's why I gravitated towards him. He just wanted to leave this hellscape with his kid. That's easy and relatable.

That might be why I hate the character even more. His situation was completely unique and necessary for a castaway story, but it materializes into absolutely nothing because his off-Island arc is so grossly underwritten.

All these years later I am still baffled by the show not planning for Walt's actor ageing. Any hope Michael had of staying relevant died with that lack of foresight.

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GameStonk posted...

That might be why I hate the character even more. His situation was completely unique and necessary for a castaway story, but it materializes into absolutely nothing because his off-Island arc is so grossly underwritten.

I mean, this was also the season with the writer's strike, so I give them a ton of leeway with that season all things considered.

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TomNook posted...

For me, at the time, it was Alex Rousseau.

It's still Alex Rousseau. Tania Raymonde is a babe.

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Johnbobb posted...

It's still Alex Rousseau. Tania Raymonde is a babe.

I can't not see her as Cynthia from Malcolm in the Middle.

#33. Charlotte Lewis
<img src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q5FMGuG3kuM/hqdefault.jpg">

Can someone please explain to me any purpose Charlotte serves other than helping develop Faraday as a character who is capable of emotions?

The season 4 LOST additions (Charlotte, Faraday, Frank, Miles) were one of the most surprising and refreshing changes on the show, especially after the failure of the tail-end survivors and really especially compared to the season 6 additions. Charlotte, however, is the exception, offering little interest or relevance before it is revealed that she grew up on the Island (so what?).

If I were to note anything positive about her, it's that the performance is pretty good, given the material. Dying of a nosebleed could have been incredibly stupid, but Rebecca Mader really manages to save the scene from itself.

19. Ana-Lucia Cortez
20. ???
21. Kate Austen
22. ???
23. ???
24. ???
25. ???
26. Michael Dawson
27. ???
28. ???
29. ???
30. ???
31. ???
32. ???
33. ???
34. Charlotte Lewis
35. Ilana Verdanksy
36. ???
37. ???
38. ???
39. Paulo
40. Nikki Fernandez

Nothing especially egregious so far.

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#32. Shannon Rutherford
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7f/Shannonlost.PNG">

In some ways, Shannon and Boone get a bad wrap. Don't get me wrong, they are obviously not good characters, but the level of disdain for them as a pair is a bit unwarranted. However, the hate for Shannon alone certainly is not.

There are just so many things wrong with Shannon that it's hard to even remember at this point. Her ridiculous incest backstory. Her shittiness to the other survivors. Her really uncomfortable and chemistry-devoid relationship with Sayid, which manages to somehow ruin the final episode even more (seriously, why in the world would Sayid want to end up with the chick he dated for a week instead of the woman that he traveled around the world and almost died countless times to be with?).

But, funny enough, the scene that stands out to me as I remember why I dislike her is a small one. Before taking to the sea, Walt asks Shannon to look after Vincent for him--a pretty touching scene considering that her brother just died and she was feeling depressed. Yet not a day later, and the idiot already loses Vincent because she wasn't paying attention! It is very classic Shannon--incapable of redemption, as much as you want to give her one more chance.

GameStonk posted...

(seriously, why in the world would Sayid want to end up with the chick he dated for a week instead of the woman that he traveled around the world and almost died countless times to be with?)

IMO it has nothing to do with what he wanted, rather, in the afterlife, everyone ended up with their soulmate, even if from an unexpected source.

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#31. Eloise Hawking
<img src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/6a/01/39/6a013978b6259330ffd4b17730911806.jpg">

Eloise is low on this list less for being a bad character and more for not being a character at all. I was actually surprised to see that she was given main cast billing because her presence is hardly felt, even though she is one of the more consequential characters on the show.

So much more could have been done with Eloise. The idea that she remembers killing her own son in the past, yet must continue to push him toward that fate, is an extremely interesting one that is barely explored at all. Instead, Eloise is relegated to being an eccentric mystic, her knowledge not grounded in any kind of logic or science (she has a magic Dharma pendulum...???), and just an overall bland presence. Maybe I am missing something, but one would think that a puppet master who is pushing everyone to complete their destiny would be a little more interesting or have a clearer motive, but Eloise is neither.

I think Eloise, like several other series-long recurring characters (Penny, Christian, Rose, Bernard.. maybe Chang?) was only credited as a main cast member for the finale.

I always found it weird that Alex and Danielle were not in the finale.

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Shannon had potential. The writers killed her off too early just to try and develop Sayid's character. She could've been the show's Maggie (TWD).

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will do #30 at the top of the page!

michael is one of the best characters of season 1. it really sucks what they do to him after s1 but i could never rank him this low because of s1.

eloise is pure garb so i'd easily have her down here

shannon also definitely fits down here
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