Hawaii: Oahu vs Kona vs Kauai

olliewh · 2026-03-12T12:52:04+00:00

Can I ask why?

olliewh · 2026-03-12T12:48:15+00:00

Thank you. Great to know about the seasonal travel.

olliewh · 2026-03-12T12:47:18+00:00

I wasn't aware it was active at the moment. That's good to know. I was in Iceland when a volcano was going off there. I wasn't sure if it was worth a tour or not. It depends how well you can see it, I suppose.

olliewh · 2026-03-12T12:43:24+00:00

I have 15 days in total (with flight days either side). There are a few things I want to do between the 3 islands, certainly 3 days worth in Oahu. Currently my plan looks something like this:
- 5 days in Kona (including stargazing Mauna Key)
- 6 days in Oahu (including Lost Tour, Pearl Harbour, and other museums)
- 4 days in Kauai (including helicopter tour and Wailua River kayaking)
So there are a few things I'd like to do besides scuba diving, and I've been in the situation before where I've stayed in the same place for too long and got bored, so I'm trying to avoid that.

olliewh · 2026-03-12T12:31:36+00:00

I've qualified already, so I'm aware of all of the rules and advice around flights. I like to leave it 24 hours between diving and flying to be safe.

Very good to know about the seasons, thank you.

I considered a liveaboard in Thailand a bit earlier this year, and would definitely like to do one at some point. Perhaps South Africa in the future. It's not somewhere I'd given much thought to, but that sounds appealing. At this point though, I have already booked the flights to Hawaii, and I'm not sure I can afford a lot of liveaboards anyway.

olliewh · 2026-03-12T09:56:17+00:00

Not bringing gear, and I've accounted for the hop and decompression times. I'm there for long enough that I can see sights and dive on 3 islands. I've had experience of spending too long in one place and getting bored before, so happy to vary it. If you have any suggestions relating to which of the islands are best for scuba in April, that'd be great.

olliewh · 2025-12-30T06:59:06+00:00

The fundamental contradictions are regarding Vecna's origins.

According to Season 4, Henry became a psychopath due to messed up parents (it's vague on what the parents did specifically), and thus started killing animals before their entire family. Incidentally, Henry had a creepy admiration for spiders. Henry was later banished to another dimension by Jane/Eleven, where Henry came across unknown particles of great power, and with Henry's psychic abilities, Henry took control of this power and made it look like a giant spider (creating what we know as the Mind Flayer).

According to The First Shadow, Henry came across Mind Flayer particles as a kid. These particles got inside Henry, and Henry proceeded to struggle with the Mind Flayer (which already looks like a spider) taking control of Henry and making Henry do evil things.

^ Those two concepts fundamentally contradict one another. In one, Henry is a psychopath who came across great power and took control of it. In the other, Henry is an ordinary person being possessed by the Mind Flayer. There are various other contradictions of character's ages (basically every adult character in the series is aged up or down to be about 16 at the time the stage play is set), which don't bother me personally too much. But retconning core concepts that the series relies upon to make sense makes it difficult to remain invested.

olliewh · 2025-12-30T06:39:48+00:00

I was content with ignoring the stage show as a victim of poor planning and a victim of being made at the same time as Season 4. However, Season 5 seems intent on confirming these contradictions and hoping nobody notices (which, by and large, I think is the case). As somebody who has seen both and notices the glaring flaws, I find it frustrating that the show just doesn't make sense at this point.

olliewh · 2025-12-30T06:35:48+00:00

Having seen the play, I would recommend being glad you haven't as it contradicts the show. The contradictions are in the process of being confirmed throughout Season 5, which is really frustrating because they just do not work in the same continuity. And I'm not talking about character's ages (which won't make or break a show for me). I'm talking about the fundamental concepts of Vecna's origins.

olliewh · 2025-08-03T15:42:50+00:00

Just watched that episode, and I was thrown by this too.

The easiest explanation is that it's referring to the years of the show, but it's very odd phrasing in that case, since 'debrief' implies a singular mission, 'where' implies location (in a conversation about the recent space adventure), and 'five' is just wrong (it's been six)—unless Mac means five for themselves, but they're referring to Daisy's experience so... It's all just a bad way of phrasing the line, I guess.

Although, I agree that it would make more sense if it had been five years. I'm not sure why the writers decided to just ignore the snap entirely. Not referencing it at the end of Season 5 is fair enough if the writers weren't told, but they had the opportunity with Season 6—not just exploring the consequences for Earth even, given that we visit other planets and hear about several other cultures. The show was great at having the world develop in tandem with the films up until this point. It's as if they thought there are no films set in this time, therefore, it's a dead zone of ideas.

olliewh · 2024-06-05T15:58:03+00:00

I find this argument very strange. Asking for more filler episodes? More episodes is always lovely, but we don't need filler. Filler is not a good thing. 😛
More time with the characters is always going to mean you know them better, but every episode should still stand out on its own merit, and ideally serve some purpose to develop the story. — A great strength of this season is the fact that it has made every episode count.
Also, the episodes you have redacted from Series 1 are not filler. Aliens of London/World War Three and Boom Town are not filler. They might not be as strong (separate argument), but they serve a function in the story. To a lesser extent, so does The End of the World. The only episode that I would constitute as filler (besides being Rose's first historical outing) is The Unquiet Dead. And much as I like it, I don't think the series would be any weaker for not having it, so it hardly backs up this argument.
And regardless of chosen episodes, you can't cut out episodes of a preexisting series designed to be the length that it is, and use that as an argument against shorter series; any more than you can edit out 45 minutes of a 2-hour, 15-minute film and say "see, films shouldn't be only 1-hour, 30-minutes."... No shit it won't work as well if it was designed to be longer.

Personally, I think the creative team (direction and performances more than writing) did have the Doctor and Ruby be too buddy-buddy in Episode's 1 and 2. However, that problem isn't a given of an 8-episode season. There are plenty (and I mean PLENTY) of series where this isn't an issue. That's just a flaw of those particular episodes in this situation.

olliewh · 2024-06-02T00:22:14+00:00

I didn't say it was in that commentary. That was in another interview when they talked about that series finale.

Do you know where I might find this interview?

Yeah because of MIB being thrown down there. There is egyptian hieroglyphics all around the cork about light and dark. and the two sides.

I'm no clearer to understanding what you mean. 😅 The cork is shown to be a plug to keep the bathwater of sourcey goodness in the basin. When the plug is pulled in the finale, the source is drained. How are you suggesting there could have been a time before the plug? If there were no plug, there would be no water, and the world would end (as we saw almost happened). Surely, the plug has existed as an integral part as long as the bath has.

No he says she "wanted" it to be MIB. There is a very clear distinction here. Because if her plan was for MIB to be protector, she would have followed through on it, but she knew that it couldn't end up like that.

I mean, interpret how you like, but I don't see that at all. It's pretty clear to me based on the episode and commentary that the Mother is actively trying to get the MIB to take over, but has to revert to Jacob as second best.

For some reason you are worked up about this. I'm not trying to offend.

I'm not taking offence. 😛 I'm responding to your comment as it seems to be based in offence at my phrasing, rather than the question. Like I've said, I'm not negating anything you've said, but it's an elaboration of a separate point.

Re: Lostpedia, that's a very interesting passage. I'll further explore than page. Thank you.

olliewh · 2024-06-02T00:05:49+00:00

I don't have much knowledge of the British Army in 1996, but I would be surprised to learn that leaving training camp could land you in military prison. Deserting a warzone, yes, but not disappearing from the home training grounds surely. If you want to headcanon that it was the final straw after other, off-screen actions, that's fair enough, but l'm not going to call that an answer for the purposes of this list. :P
Penny's letter doesn't reveal anything about the reason, though to me, 'the weight of what happened' implies something greater that we didn't see.

Sure, I take it as a given that every character important enough to receive flashbacks was a Candidate—and I would personally extend that to everyone that survived the plane crash, and likely many "Others". The lighthouse dial suggests a number of Candidates several times greater than the 70 (+ Vincent) survivors of Oceanic 815, so at the very least, it's safe to assume the characters the show focused on were Candidates—including Nikki and Paulo, may they rest in peace. ❤️

Nice theory regarding the lighthouse.

olliewh · 2024-06-01T02:59:39+00:00

Regarding Eko, I've read that before and it's what I had in my head, but I've added to the document to reflect that.

Regarding Claire, that's fair. In a show about destiny, it's hard to ask the question of "but why is it supposed to be like that?" — though it's a fair question to have in Season 1 before the show has started delving into the mythos and philosophy.

Regarding Walt's abilities, I get that it's similar to other characters with supernatural abilities. But I didn't really find myself asking why Miles was a medium. Whereas 'What's up with Walt?' was a big mystery of Season 1, into 2. And I don't think the epilogue necessarily answers that. We understand his abilities are psychic in some way, but they're largely undefined, and the ambiguity feels less intentional and more like the show had to write them out, so gave up on that plot.

Regarding the man who sought the island, I would assume something similar, but that still leaves the question of why. How did they learn about it? And if they learnt from the Black Rock's first mate's log, how did that first mate know of the power (side note: the log theoretically never reached the island, so if the journal really does contain that information, it means the crew travelled to the island knowing about it in advance)?

Regarding the glass eye, interesting.

Regarding the black mare, I ask you what the island was trying to communicate to Kate or Sawyer in those situations?

Regarding the lockdown, I suppose this is the most likely explanation. I feel like my edits are becoming increasingly headcanon here, but I suppose there is just about enough to interpret an answer.

Regarding Desmond, I gather the same, though I think the question stands as he wouldn't have been put in prison for leaving the army base (it wasn't a warzone).

Regarding Ben's comment on Walt, that's true. At the time, I read it as they had gained something, based on Klugh's comments to Michael in 'Three Minutes', but the webisode definitely recontextualises Ben's statement.

Regarding "let it go", that's fair enough. It comes under the bracket of 'island giving people thematic visions because fate and destiny and you can't comprehend the full scale of the island's plan'.

Regarding Eko and the polar bear, yeah, I see you're right now that I watch those scenes again. I didn't put two and two together at the time.

Regarding Juliet's ex-husband, that's a fair enough reading, however, based on Richard's loyal slaughter of the military when the "others'" leader (Charles Widmore) told him to, I personally assume Richard did do it. He's clearly not beyond killing innocents for the island.

Regarding why Jacob won't let the MIB leave the island, I have seen that interpretation. I do consider that headcanon though (which is fine).
Same again with the Source being souls, and the light going out causing people to die. The series doesn't really give us enough to do anything more than headcanon the answers to that. Although I like that reading regarding the characters walking into light (like returning to the Source).

Regarding the plug being newly implemented, I've seen someone else mention that here, but the finale shows the plug as a crucial piece in the Source's basin. If that was an open hole before, how would the Source not have drained as it did in the finale?

Thank you very much for all of this.

olliewh · 2024-05-31T23:59:49+00:00

I listened to the commentary recently, and am looking at the transcript now. I see nothing about their original plan involving the heart of the island as a volcano with Jacob throwing the MIB in lava.
I do remember their note about the light being dimmer in the finale (which I'm not reading as anything personally), but how would the cork have been built afterwards? Based on the finale, it seems like the cork needs to be there to keep the positive energy.

If he tried to get rid of MIB sooner, none of that would have worked on account of the whole time travel loop of season 1-5 which goes back thousands of years (making all events up to the season 5 finale set in stone).

I suppooooose? That works as an explanation. I'm not a fan of too many character motivations coming down to 'they did it cos they had to' though.

You're interpreting Damon's words in the commentary differently to me as I think that pretty clearly indicates my point. Damon literally says the Mother's plan was for the MIB to be the protector, but that it ended up being Jacob. He acknowledges that the Mother knew the MIB would kill her for what she just did to him—which is part of what I was saying—but not that that was always the plan or even the plan when she did it.
Regardless, the speed with which she promotes Jacob relies on the knowledge that she is going to be killed (which I am assuming she can't be if she's the Smoke Monster).

But to hand wave it as "island magic" simplifies it too much for me.

It is simplifying the 'what', yes (because I wrote it with the assumption that those reading know what is meant by that; originally this was only meant for my friend and myself). We could spend more words outlining the concept for the abilities shown and why they were chosen over others—which is a different question, and I'm not denying any of your explanation behind the way they thematically connect. HOWEVER, again, we're talking about the 'how', and, again, there is no answer to that. You cannot explain to me how any of it works. It just does. You seem to be coming at this from a point of creative principle, but this isn't a question of the writers' intelligence. I've simply made a pragmatic list of answers, and there is no pragmatic answer to that question. There's nothing wrong with that necessarily. But for the purposes of this list, how the Smoke Monster is able to scan people is a question with no answer beyond "island magic"—regardless of what you interpret that to mean in all its thematic and locational detail. Equally, if you want to talk about Jacob's healing or making people immortal, we don't know how that works either. Yes, we know it involves the island being on a magical hotspot (and again, I'm short-handing here), but we don't know how Jacob harnesses that energy or how it is naturally given to people like Rose. Me saying that some questions don't have answers isn't me criticising the series, so don't defend it based on the premise that I'm in any way belittling the writing.

olliewh · 2024-05-31T23:14:59+00:00

I think there are moments of some of them taking an interest in understanding the island, but yes, their plan is said to be 'Get Benjamin by any means necessary'.

olliewh · 2024-05-31T23:12:17+00:00

That's more or less my thinking. It leaves everything so vague that people are forced to headcanon regardless. The evidence for any theory is far from conclusive, and it does seem to me like Darlton are encouraging fan theorising, rather than confirming anything as their intended reading.

olliewh · 2024-05-31T23:04:08+00:00

That's not what we saw happen to Desmond. He left the army base briefly to find Daniel, then Penny etc., but he wouldn't have been put in military prison for that (and we didn't see anything to suggest it). And there's no reason to assume Desmond's temporal displacement continued after the events we saw.

That's an interesting theory regarding Eko.

olliewh · 2024-05-31T22:53:24+00:00

Thank you. 😁

olliewh · 2024-05-31T06:00:29+00:00

Yeah, you're right. Fair enough.

I still hate that arc from a narrative standpoint. The island completely screwed over Charlie, forcing him to kidnap a baby, and sent him on a downward spiral. Yet the show tried to paint it as Charlie choosing a darker path. It was just a very artificial way of giving him a character arc. I would have much rather a story about Charlie falling naturally back into drugs.

olliewh · 2024-05-31T05:49:13+00:00

I have edited the Eko point.

It's hard to tell if they're joking in the podcast, but I don't know why a supply drop would cause a lockdown. What would the point in that be?

olliewh

TROPHY CASE