What if you weren't cursed?

Hugo "Hurley" Reyes has done a good job at offering some comic relief through the years. In a show where tragedy seems to loom at every corner, he's certainly served us well. Don't get me wrong. He may be good for kicks and giggles, but Hurley is also an integral piece of the LOST puzzle.

There is a reason he has survived as long as he has. He is, in a word, special. The numbers, perhaps the most identifiable LOST icon of them all, have followed Hurley at every step of his journey and ours. Of all the characters, he is the only one who is able to communicate fully with the dead. Unlike Miles, who converses with the dead through a "feeling" that allows him to know what the they knew when they were alive, Hurley walks side by side with his ghosts. Hell, he even plays chess with them.

Because of this, our dear friend started to think he was cursed. After he left the island, the dead began to haunt him. Before he arrived, he believed the numbers were the root of all his misfortunes. But what if he isn't cursed, as Jacob said? What if he were blessed? And if it's true that he is blessed, then what is the true meaning of being able to walk through life with your ghosts? What is the value of that gift?

We're about to find out. Five days to go.

NOTE: Gonna be out of town for a few days, so no new artworks till early morning on Monday. However, aouaLOST will still be tweeting LOST news as usual, so follow me (link in the sidebar). Cheers!

LOST Subway Map by John Cabrera

You city folk will certainly appreciate this. Also check out this accompanying article.

Source: Who's Rae Hanson?

Still got my back?

(Tired as a mofo, so bear with me)

I love Sawyer. I love Sawyer with Kate. When season four ended with the fugitive lovers separating for an indefinite amount of time, it became painfully clear with whom each would end up. In the three years that followed, Kate naturally hooked up with Jack, and Sawyer...well, Sawyer ended up with Juliet. You could see this pairing from a mile away. It was in season five's "Lafleur" that the couple was finally revealed.

I was so ready to rain on their parade, but when I finally saw the two together, I was stunned. They were sweet. Maybe not as fiery, maybe not as intense, but every bit as tragic and with ten times the commitment. My "Skater" heart was shaken (if I may be so dramatic).

Now, does that mean I root for them? No. But do I shun them? Absolutely not. Their final scene together during the "incident" still gets me every time. It had me wondering how I could have ever not loved Juliet as a character, and made me sing Sawyer's (and Josh Holloway's) praises all the more.

So now we have only six days left to the premiere. How'd we let it creep up on us this quickly?

Saranghae

If ever two people were destined to be together, it's these guys. Want proof? Jacob said so himself. Sun and Jin have been separated for three years now. Even though Sun got back to the Island, she didn't get back to the timeline her husband was in.

It's overwhelming. The pull between them is so strong that she leaves their daughter back home and risks her life on the off chance that Jin is still alive.

It's so easy to root for such a stable pairing as this, a marriage, still standing after being tested so much. But what if these two never meet again? This is LOST after all, and we have to start entertaining the possibility that circumstance will trump destiny this time around. That said, would it really be that bad if they never reunite? Sure it would be devastating, but wouldn't it only be that much more beautiful? To love someone so much, it actually hurts you, threatens to destroy you. To love someone so much and have it reciprocated 100%, but never know it for sure. It's beautiful because it's tragic.

Only seven days to go.

LOST art by Supermercado

Supermercado is an illustrator, animator, and writer. His work can be found here. His stuff's amazing!

Just count to five

Jack, Jack, Jack. When this series started, it was so clear who the hero of the story was supposed to be. He had all the conventional signs of heroism. He was a doctor, handsome but not off-putting, charming, dependable and true.

But of course, LOST is not a conventional show. In five seasons we've watched Jack fall into depression and alcoholism. We saw him obsess over things he so desperately wanted to change, faced with the very real possibility that these things were not meant to be fixed. It consumed him, drove him to self-loathing lows to be controlled at every step by his destiny, especially because he denied its existence so vocally. This is not a portrait of a hero, but the portrait of a human being. I don't always love the guy (I'm partial to Sawyer), but you can't hate him for trying.

And now we enter the sixth season, with the good doctor planted firmly at our side, likely ending this journey with us, as sure-footed as he was when it began.

I hope you find what you're looking for. Eight days to destiny. Click pic for bigger version.

Nothing's forever

Every season on LOST, a new set of characters is explored. Season one was about the survivors of Oceanic flight 815, in season two we met the "Tailies", season three gave us an in-depth with the Others, season four introduced us to the freighter team, and season five brought us face-to-face with the folks at the DHARMA Initiative.

Of these five, my favorite bunch has been that of the fourth season. Every single character that came out of season four intrigued me, had me on the edge of my seat. (Even Keamy was fun to watch, and he was a jackass.) The leader of the freighter's scientific team, however meek and fidgety, was the ultimate geek, Daniel Faraday.

Dan really drove the time travel vehicle for both the characters and the audience. He was our source. Every question that had to be asked about time travel was answered by this one man.

Yet apart from all this knowledge, like most of the characters on this show, he was just another kid who grew up with crummy parents. And in the end, he had the unique opportunity to die at the hands of his own mother, months before she was to give birth to him. Time travel, like destiny, is a fickle bitch.

He thought he couldn't change things. Maybe he can. Nine days left.

Mythology

The season five finale brought us face to face with someone we have waited years to see. Of course you know, I'm talking about Jacob. We always expected to meet him eventually, but who he brought with him was the biggest surprise. The Man in Black, as most call him, is a game-changer. He came into the story and brought an entirely new game with him, a game that engulfed the lives of our characters in a truly profound way, most notably John Locke.

Jacob and the Man in Black are on a whole other level of mythology. Their existence affects every facet of the show, from the smoke monster, to Richard's agelessness, to all this talk about destiny. Their meeting on the beach, in that now iconic finale scene, was eerily calm, and yet it held so much weight with it. People dissected it as soon as the episode aired. Everything down to that fish Jacob was cooking. Was it a red snapper or a red herring?

There have been many examples of rivalries between men on LOST, but I guarantee you that none is as ancient as this. Just ten days left, friends. Enjoy.

The crash of flight 815

September 22, 2004 was a big day for millions of people, both real and fictitious. That's the day Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 fell out of the sky and hurtled towards the twisted world that waited for it below. It's the day our characters, inextricably linked from the beginning, finally became aware of each other's existence, their violently real and palpable connection.

The way season five ended had many of us fans wondering if we would ever get to witness this crash again. Will there be a reset? Does flight 815 crash whether the past is changed or not? Whatever happens in this final season, I'm sure it will shock and amaze.

We only have eleven days left of this most epic wait, our most bittersweet hiatus. As always click for a bigger version, and have a pleasant day.

Okay, I'll admit...

...this piece looks a little weird, maybe even a little uncomfortable. But that's the Kate and Aaron story isn't it? When Kate and the rest of the Oceanic Six were rescued, keeping Aaron for herself was her way of coping with all they had been through (and all she had lost, *cough* Sawyer) in the preceding 108 days. Once she found something that made her feel whole, she held on to it until the day she was strong enough to let it go, all the while fearing that he too would be taken from her.

People tend to not like Kate, but I still do. There's a delicate humanity to her that this little boy brought out so fully, it's hard to write her off completely.

As for this boy--this "sweet, and kind, and good" little boy--I really hope we haven't seen the last of him. Just 13 days to go, people. Have a good one.

My name is Sayid Jarrah...

...and I rock. I'm really gonna miss this guy. The last time we saw him, he had a hole in his stomach from being shot at by DHARMA dudes, and was rigging "Jughead" to go off on impact. As you know, Juliet took care of that during the "incident".

Let's be honest, Juliet is most likely dead. Whether she's LOST-dead or dead-dead, I don't know. But I wouldn't be surprised if Sayid will be following her close behind. He was a tortured torturer, LOST's most logical thinker, a trained survivalist, and of all the 815-ers, probably the most suited to lead (sorry Jack). Here's to you, Jarrah. Click for bigger version.

Season six starts in just two weeks from today. I'm giddy. I am.

EDIT: After seeing "LA X", we now know that Juliet survives the bomb, but dies shortly after being discovered under the ruble. Sayid appears to die momentarily, but is resurrected by the Others?!? Wow. Just goes to show, you never know where this story will take you.

LOST posters from Mattson Creative

This isn't mine, it's from a designer and fellow-LOST fan at Mattson Creative. The collection of work is great! They're poster invites to a LOST season six premiere viewing party. This one's my favorite. See more here.

Source: Mattson Creative Blog

What ever happened to Sawyer and Kate?

Jeez, do you remember these two? I mean of course you remember them, but do you remember how mind-numbingly amazing they were together? Long before Juliet and Sawyer shacked up in the seventies, and still to this day, I root for these two. I have always been on the "Skater" side of LOST's beloved (or not so beloved) triangle. Sigh. As always, click for a bigger version.

EDIT: I just noticed that not only have I been using a lot of tree silhouettes, I've been using the same one over and over. Variety is nice, but hey, I love trees :)

Why am I in such a "Locke" mood lately?

Yet another random Locke collage from my collection of works done out of boredom and a profound love for LOST, LOL! :P Enjoy this wallpaper, or not, your choice. Cheers!

Another gift from All of Us Are LOST

Here's a background that I made but never got to use...but just because I didn't doesn't mean you can't :) Clicky for a big version.

I'll upload one that isn't marked when I can (it's on another computer). As you know, Locke will be a major factor in wrapping up the mythology of the show as we enter season 6. Can't wait! Can you? Catch the LOST 2-hour premiere on Tuesday February 2, 2010.

Welcome to LOST SideSteps!

So a few months back, in celebration of LOST and its final season, I started a quick recap website about the show. It's called All of Us Are LOST, and it was done as a project for a web development class. This is the current background image on both my website and the Twitter page connected to it. Go ahead and check 'em out, and click on the first pic to see a version big enough to use as a desktop background. The second one's a giant.

In the meantime, this blog will serve as the "dumping ground" of all my little artworks that I've randomly created on the side, mainly related to LOST. It's a work in progress, but either way, thanks for visiting!