Argument For The Benfallibles
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By AngeloComet
- Argument For The Benfallibles
- Created: Jan 9, 2008
- Last updated: Aug 13, 2008
- After episode: 3.22: Through The Looking Glass
- Status: Current
- Flag this theory:
Don’t confuse adaptation with a masterplan.
— AngeloComet
Benfallible (noun); A person who believes that Benjamin Linus is a fallible human being. Whilst not being dismissive of Ben’s undoubted propensity for grand scheming, a Benfallible is loathe to the idea that all that occurs is due to Ben’s will. Popular arguments range from the perspective that such powers would render Ben super-human, unbelievable and, above all else, boring.
Let’s bring out the big guns first. The one undisputable fact about Ben that renders claims about his all-knowing powers redundant. He got a tumur. Yes he did. He got a fatal tumur. For a guy that people say has all the bases covered, it’s fair to say that he didn’t see that one coming. And yes, he was certainly clever and resourceful when it came to manipulating Jack into performing surgery and ridding him of the tumur but the fact remains that Ben was put in a bad spot where it could have all ended very messily and ignominiously for him.
By the way, whilst I’m on the subject, let me draw your attention to when Ben’s plans to make Jack “want to want” to do the surgery were taking root. He tells Kate, “The next two weeks are going to be very unpleasant.” He says this because that’s the timeframe he has allotted to ‘break’ Jack. He’s got it all worked out. Yeah, you betcha. Until, uh, this. . .
Pickett - I don’t understand. It’s supposed to be two weeks.
Juliet - Our schedule’s been moved up.
Pickett - That’s an order?
Juliet - It’s coming from him.
Pickett - It’s stupid.
You said it, Pickett. Ben the master manipulator? Don’t make me laugh. The guy can’t even see two weeks in front of his face! The two-weeks plan had to be changed because circumstances that Ben did not foresee occurred and caused him to adapt. Nothing wrong with him adapting - turns out he’s very intelligent at it - but don’t confuse adaptation with a masterplan.
I believe this is the crux to the confusion. Ben’s very good at getting credit for seeing the bigger picture when he’s actually very good at reading situations and reacting. Couple that with a man who, indeed, does happen to know a lot of stuff that he likes to keep to himself and it’s a formidable combination. And, also, he’s pretty damn lucky. Such as the time Locke came and solved a problem for him by turning up armed with C4 and a will to blow up the submarine. Consider the following:
Ben- “… there I was, shaking hands with Jack, and thinking I’d give almost anything to come up with a way to stop him from leaving… because to let him go would be a sign of weakness, of failure, of defeat… And that, John, would be the end of me… And then you came striding out of the jungle, John, to make my dream come true.”
Do you think Ben engineered Locke turning up the way he did? Can you even comprehend just how many factors and variables he would have had to manipulate for that to happen (all from the comfort of his recuperation period, no less!)? That Locke would hear about a submarine and join Kate and Sayid in getting Jack? That they would find Mikhail, obtain the C4 and get past the Sonic Fence with it? You’re attributing that to Ben!?
Listen, we Benfallibles understand character and Lost go together hand-in-hand. That teary-eyed little boy that turned up on the Island and suffered a loveless father all his life has a very real humanity about him. Yes, Ben’s life on the Island has made him cold and calculating, but not so cold that he couldn’t be a father to Alex. Without that humanity, without that fallibility, Ben is two-dimensional. Since when did Lost do two-dimensional? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Ben as superman is dull dull dull. Ben as flawed genius is ripe with potential.
‘We are now in day 3 of our exodus from the village and I am, I fear, at the limit of my tactical resources.’
Words there from Ben’s own diary. From Ben himself. To no audience. No manipulation. Just a man and his own thoughts. This does not read like the words of a man overburdened with confidence and a flawless plan being executed. This, to me, reads like the words of a man hanging on by his fingertips (no matter what his bug-eyed poker face may say). Ben is a man plagued with insecurities (Locke presenting a challenge to Ben’s authority over The Others is definitely going to be a plot thread) and heartbreak (you think the reason he keeps the doll his childhood sweetheart Annie gave him because it fits a masterplan?) and to deny Ben this humanity, to reduce him to an uber-schemer, does him a massive dis-service.
This is why the argument for the Benfallibles is correct. No matter how clever he may seem, no matter how conniving and controlling he may appear, at the heart of the matter he is not God. He is a man. He has flaws. He has limitations. He is the man behind the curtain; an impressive man, a knowledgeable man, but don’t let his smoke and mirrors have you fooled into thinking he can do magic.
Ben is a man with a plan, for sure, but I have no doubt that his plans have gone wrong before (“my wonderful plan got shot to sunshine when you saw my damned x-rays”) and they will go wrong again. I’ll go one further and hazard that, in a forthcoming flashback, we will see how Ben ended up caught in Danielle’s net by accident. If that particular incident was not done deliberately, will that be enough to convince you Benipulators you’re wrong? Or are you just going to keep seeing an all-powerful genius, no matter how many mistakes he makes, and keep falling back on that tired old defense of how even his mistakes are ‘part of the grand plan’? I’ll let Richard Alpert have the last word; he’s had the measure of Ben since he was a boy after all.
Richard - “Ben has been wasting our time… We’re looking for someone to remind us that we’re here for more important reasons.”
Hear hear, eyeliner man!
Key characters
| Short Name | Full Name | Episodes | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ben | Benjamin Linus | 3.20, 4.9, & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13 | 1714 |
I think that Ben does have an ultimate goal he’s working towards but a lot of the stages on the route there appear to be unplanned. As you said, his brilliance lies in “reading situations and reacting” rather than omniscence. That’s what I think at the minute but I’m willing to be proved wrong by [Walt-realted?] revelations in Season 4.
Two +1s in a row,and I think you’ll get the “hat trick” :) Super post , says it all. Makes me proud to be a benfallible.
i am setting up camp in the benfallible side of the island he is clever but still human, and previous epsisodes have shown many dimensions to his character He secretly doubts his own ability (ben’s diary) but as a leader must appear in control at all time to his group to maintain faith in his ability. When he does pull off a manipulative plan he then makes out that he mean’t it to work out like that all along. He’s cold, clever and calculated but ultimatly still flawed can make mistakes, pah Henry Gale …i knew that was a lie from the start…well sort of
AC—I’ve read through both posts and the problem I’m having is that I think you have set up a false dichotomy. Consider these parts of your two definitions.
Benipulator: “consider all actions performed by Ben to fit in accordance with a grand plan that only he can see the extent of. In keeping with this ideology, every word Ben utters can never be taken at face value, but can only be considered intentional and with purpose.”
I would generally consider that to be true—I think he has a grand plan and that it’s hard to take anything he says at face value because he is a master manipulator.
On the other hand, is his plan infallible? No. The show certainly would be dull if it was. Also, his plans seem based on an enhanced ability to read signs of what is to come rather than some absolute knowledge (even if they do turn out to be like Desmond’s flashes). And then of course, one assumes there’s an opposing force to Ben which is countering the moves in his plans as well.
So do I agree with the Benfallible who “is loathe to the idea that all that occurs is due to Ben’s will.” Absolutely. So I don’t buy the division which is the foundation of your argument.
As to individual points—some of them I agree with (I don’t think Ben anticipated that his tumor was that far along and would need to be operated on immediately) and some I don’t (I think he may have done something to get the C-4 into Locke’s hands) — It’s those individual points which are worth exploring on their merits and the evidence rather than setting up opposing camps who believe Ben is fallible or think Ben is an infallible god. Frankly, I don’t think anyone belongs to that camp anyway. And if we are in opposing groups I can just see me having to put on my heaviest fake beard everytime I post a Group1. I mean they do give me more gravitas, but gravitas can get so itchy.
(posting on the other thread too—in my Kate plays both sides against the middle mode.)
Jaz, I concede my extreme definitions aren’t perfect (but then no good argument ever is black and white - even on Lost!). I do believe there is a division in how much credit we are to grace Ben’s actions with, and there are those that deem his every action part of a masterplan (like that implant business with Claire; that was seen by some as part of Ben’s design when he originally had her kidnapped) and others that believe attributing many of the happenings and behaviours of the Losties as being heavily-influenced by a string-pulling Ben as too much of a stretch of credulity.
You’re probably right. Probably it’ll turn out he’s utterly flawed but striving towards a masterplan that he’s mostly pulling off. However, that would engender the need for a third party. The Benfallipulators! Which isn’t as catchy! And doesn’t inspire rowdy and heated debate.
I want arguments, dammit!
I guess I’m both and neither. I do think Ben sets things up to achieve his own ends, often with a continency plan, but even then things might not go as he planned and he has to think quickly and make adjustments that may or may not turn out as he likes. Good arguments all the way around.
AC, What the “Benipulators” know, is that Ben has all of the angles worked out, which means that he has an uncanny ability to for-see all of the potential outcomes, and move with the plan quickly and precisely, as any good chess player would! Simple!
Angelocomet: I want to HUG you.
I’ve felt like a lone voice crying in the wilderness: Ben is not a GOD!
He is manipulative, certainly. But the threads here consistently assign god-like powers to him, assuming that he can, and does, anticipate every single random and unpredictable occurrence and turn it to his advantage.
Your post is breathtaking in its logic and thoroughness, and I am very pleased to see this point of view expressed so well.
I’m with you. I like my bad guys human and fallible.