My theory so far...

[startswimming]

After lurking around on the board for some time, this is what i have convinced my self and my friends is REALLY going in everyones favorite TV-Show(not counting baywatch)

Everything is about Ben, things started getting really messy when he took control of the others, and kicked Widmore off the throne. I believe he somehow gained power over Jacob and that is why Jacob spoke the words "help me" to Locke, and that is why he can control the monster.
I believe Ben is trying to create a perfect timeline where his mother survives his birth, his dad is dead/not an ass, and his(maybe he adopted lol) daughter is still alive. I believe this because as a kid he wanted to join the others after seeing his mother alive or at least present outside his window, and that's why he wanted to be an Other to begin with, and now because he wants to save his daughter, which explains why he more or less sacrificed her, because he knew he would eventually fix everything.
How he gained the power to control Jacob/The Others i don't know, and i hope it will be explained or at least hinted a bit in this season :)

Locke is the counter to Ben, The Others are the "good guys"! Just not with Ben as their leader, Locke is the island fighting back against Ben, and Richard has just been around since maybe the first arrivals to the island, like it has been suggested here that he may have arrived with the egyptians/greeks that build the four toed statue, or maybe the crew of the Black Rock, i like the whole panchen/dalai thing, but can't really settle on that idea as his "purpose", i think his knowledge and abilities are more "mechanical", and the people that can see Jacob and the other "undeads" have a more spiritual relationship with the "mystic" powers of the island.

Maybe Jacob was robbed as his position as #1 undead by ben the same way Widmore was when Ben exiled him, and the undeads we see talking to Locke now(christian and claire), are somehow allies of Ben in an effort to create his perfect timeline, or maybe they're even manipulating both Ben and Locke to create a timeline where the losties are the others, something i've been suspecting for a long time since the losties are pretty much considered "the good guys", and i could imagine they'd end up being the new others, guardians of time, space, and polar bears, anyway....

That's more or less my theory comprised of watching the show, and some of the awesome posts on this forum, like f.ex the excellent post about cold fusion in The Swan, it really inspires you to do some research even if you're not usually the type to do that kind of thing ;)

i hope you enjoyed this post, it was nice to finally put some of my ideas and theories down

feel free to poke holes, fix my grammar/spelling, remind me that this has already been posted in a correct forum, etc, etc.

ps: episode 12 will be a locke episode, i have faith in this.

[vonnie]

Welcome aboard. I was a lurker too and finally registered to
post just recently. Have been an avid Lost fan since the beginning. I agree with almost all your post. I'm not sure about the part that all of this is for Ben to create the perfect timeline but who knows. I am really hoping there is a larger purpose for everyone to come back to the island and not just a big con on Ben's part because he wanted to go back and they were his ticket. I agree, Ben somehow came into power and the island is trying to oust him (in 2004) as well as I think Richard is. I think Richard is some type of guardian/advisor to the group. Is Locke the ultimate leader, I don't see how this could ever be possible because he is such a stupid, misguided poor soul, but he was able to communicate with Jacob so he may be the temporary replacement for Ben, who may not have ever even really seen or heard Jacob, he just pretended so that he could be leader. I honestly have NO idea where it will all end up. Ijust know it will not be a happy happy ending. I also know we are building to some kind of battle but what that will all be about, again, who knows!!!!

[startswimming]

Welcome aboard. I was a lurker too and finally registered to
post just recently. Have been an avid Lost fan since the beginning. I agree with almost all your post. I'm not sure about the part that all of this is for Ben to create the perfect timeline but who knows. I am really hoping there is a larger purpose for everyone to come back to the island and not just a big con on Ben's part because he wanted to go back and they were his ticket. I agree, Ben somehow came into power and the island is trying to oust him (in 2004) as well as I think Richard is. I think Richard is some type of guardian/advisor to the group. Is Locke the ultimate leader, I don't see how this could ever be possible because he is such a stupid, misguided poor soul, but he was able to communicate with Jacob so he may be the temporary replacement for Ben, who may not have ever even really seen or heard Jacob, he just pretended so that he could be leader. I honestly have NO idea where it will all end up. Ijust know it will not be a happy happy ending. I also know we are building to some kind of battle but what that will all be about, again, who knows!!!!

Don't get me wrong, i think the other undeads(the evil jacobs if you will, everyone seems to have an evil "twin" running around), have used Ben to further their own agenda, so don't think i blame poor Ben for everything, i think the larger purpose is what's going on between Jacob and the other undeads, the O6, The Others, and everyone else is just their pawns/champions.
About Locke, he may be a tad bit gullible, but he's "pure" in that way, he believes in doing it for the good of the island, and what benefits the island is good for everyone. i agree that it seems he was chosen as a temporary replacement for widmore/Ben since one is exiled and the other is a fraud, but the undeads obviously need them because they can't act on their own, so maybe Locke will grow to be the leader they need, and not the one they wanted. just because the undeads knows what happened in the future/other futures doesn't mean they'll know exactly how it will play out when they meddle with this one.
I'm pretty sure by now that it will end up with Locke and the people that follow him becoming the enlightened protectors of the island, i just hope that if i'm wrong(which i probably am since TPTB always manage to shoot me down), they find a way to make it all work, i have faith in them like i have faith in Locke to be manipulated into messing everything up again and again :)

ps: it's nice to be agreed with, even partially, i was kind of worried that my post would make a lot more sense to myself than anyone else :)

[vonnie]

By undeads do you mean Christian and Jacob? I think Locke should be an undead now too but somehow he seems a
little more alive than Christian does when we see him. There is a part of me that thinks eventually Jack will be the
lead Island protector and Locke was just a stopgap to help
teach Jack about faith over science and wait for him to be ready to take over as leader