The monster

I've always been very curious about the monster.

Knowing what we do about the island (and my theories are often destroyed by the next episode) I think that the monster was originally created to be some kind of advanced weapon - it seems to be able to read minds, and therefore it could exploit weaknesses. It also seems to be able to make itself invisible, but it can also be large and ferocious - name to me a country that wouldn't want a weapon like that.

Alvar Hanso was described as a weapon's magnate, so a secret island would be invaluable to him and someone like that would be unlikely to allow it to just be used for experimenting on animals.

We know that at one stage the military (Hurley's friend Leonard was in the navy) was monitoring the signal coming from the island, we don't know exactly when this was but it was more than 16 years ago because that was when Danielle changed it to her message. Surely if they were suspicious of something going on there they would have investigated further, unless for some reason they were told to leave it alone - possibly promised access to any weapons developed there, or maybe they were in on it from the start and were just monitoring it to make sure everything was going as planned.

The monster attacked first the pilot, who it might have considered responsible for the invasion of its island, then didn't attack anyone until Eko, though it didn't attack Eko earlier in the show, nor did it kill him the first time in that episode it encountered him - that's why I think it might be connected in some way to eyepatch guy, though it has shown inconsistency before - Locke thought it was beautiful at the start, and it left him alone, but then it tried to drag him down a hole.

It seems strange all the same though that the monster would kill Eko after initially leaving him alone. He could have been killed off in any number of ways, but it happened that way, after the rest of them saw eyepatch guy through the camera, and he became aware of their presence. Perhaps he doesn't control it, perhaps it just identifies with him if he was part of the team that created it, as it seems to have some kind of advanced artificial intelligence it might see its existence as protecting him, rather than just the island.

I'm also curious as to whether it was the monster which appeared to Eko as his brother, and if so ,whether it was also the monster which appeared to Jack as his father, and Hurley as Dave. If it was, it would add to my suspicions - what better weapon than one that could read your mind, appear as someone you'd really love to see, then turn on you and crush you like a bug?

Any thoughts on the monster issue?

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Considering the Monster seemed to respond to fear...I think along with all the crazy stuff going on on the island maybe the smoke is just a manafestation of each individuals fears...and if they can stand up to that fear..it leaves them alone..like when locke and eko looked at it directly and it went away..and when eko accepted his fear and what he knew he had done it took him.

out there i know..but so is the whole show...

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I am pretty sure the monster was created by DHARMA, or, made by DHARMA, perhaps it's capacity already existed on the island

I think I gave up trying to figure out what the monster is. In one light it's some mechanical beastie with chains and gears, in the other light it's a wispy puff of black smoke that chucks people at trees. If it has a purpose or a mission, I have yet to understand what it is.

Really, why would it have it in for the pilot? The dude was practically dead already. Then it goes all thrashing about scaring all the losties on the beach. After that it has plenty of opportunity to mow down as many people as it wants, but it chooses not to. What's it's goal?

Silly monster.