I find it fascinating that Ben has gone from 'the bad guy in charge of all the bad guys' to 'almost one of the losties' in just a few episodes. Suddenly he's hanging out with Locke and Hurley, Hurley is giving him food and having conversations with him. I've started to view him with even less suspicion.
Granted, if you've read other posting of mine on this forum, you know I never really considered him or the Others really 'bad guys'. I just didn't know their motivations, so was unwilling to label them as 'good' or 'bad'. Just 'Other'
But now the writers of the show seem to be very much trying to have Ben become one of the survivors. It's still good guys against bad guys, but who the bad guys are has changed to the freighter crew.
I now view Ben almost the same way I viewed Sawyer and occasionally Sayid in the earlier seasons. I like watching him, even if I don't completely trust him yet.
The acts of having his daughter shot in the head and killed, and his being very emotional about it has humanized Ben quite a bit in my mind. He also seems sad and let down by not being the chosen one anymore. He accepts the Locke is the new person Jacob wants to talk to, even if he is sad and a bit bitter by it.
In a very real sense, the writers have changed the rules of the show by shifting who the bad guys are, and bring the old bad guys into the fold of the good guys. At least, that's the way the past few episodes have felt to me.

Any thoughts/comments?

__________________

I am not so sure about Ben. He's lied and manipulated people so many times under the ruse of protecting the island. It seems it all comes down to Ben and Widmore and their fight for their own agenda for the island.

I agree, dubious. Ben is manipulative to the max. Even though he is now evading his part in the death of all those dharma people, he did kill his father personally. He knew the gas was coming and he CHOSE to take him apart from the others and watch him die. I think that's pretty horrible since the only thing we really saw the guy do was not remember his brithday and drink a lot. My father did that and I didn't gas him.

bens dad tormented him every moment of his existence that "he killed his mother". a little different than just failing to remember his birthday.
he exercized extreme emotional abuse on him.

I know I was being flip. But Ben's sudden emergence as the possible hero of Lost is just amazing to me. I give kudos to the writers for changing our perspective, and everyone in Lost (except maybe for Hurley and Rose and Bernard) have very dark angles to their character. But look what he put Jack and Kate and Sawyer through when he captured them, Look what he did to Juliet when he walks her up the mountain so she can see Ethan's dead body. Some of his action hero stuff of late is seductive, but I don't believe this "cowed Ben" act for a minute. He always has another plan up his sleeve.

Ben may be the "deepest" character on the show, however the writers have lured us into believing that Hurley is vitaly important to the island as of late. I wonder if this is to take us away from Ben or if the island is truly changing its leader/spokesperson?

I don't Ben is trying to be displayed as a possible 'hero' of Lost. I just think it's fascinating how he went from the ultimate bad guy to a member of the survivors. Not a full member, just a semi-member that the other people are still looking at with suspicion and doubt.

I don't think Lost has heroes at all. Even among the 'good guys' there's not really a good guy there. Kate killed her sleeping father, Sawyer shot and killed an innocent man in cold blood, Sayid was a torturer, Jack was, at best, a neglectful husband (not a horrible crime but still not a good thing) and at worst a stalker of his ex, Locke talked Sawyer into killing his father for him. Nobody is really hero material.
The only difference between Ben and those I mentioned above is that we know Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Jack, and Locke had good reasons for what they did. Their motivations were clear that they were doing a bad thing for what (they thought at least) were good reasons. We don't know what motivates Ben to do the things he does and did. Maybe he has really good reasons too. Maybe better than "I killed him cause I thought he ripped off my mom and dad causing them to suicide. Oops. My bad."
Us not knowing what the Others are doing or why is part of the mystery of the show. Maybe everything they do is to save the world or something else spectacular. If that's the case, then kidnapping Jack, Sawyer and Kate and forcing them to...... wait. What did Ben do to them while he had them kidnapped that was horrible? Kept them locked up and lied to them sometimes. Asked Jack to save his life? I guess Kate and Sawyer did have to break some rocks for them. Terrible! Sarcasm aside, all of that can easily be justified if the reason is good enough.
Maybe that's the whole point of the show. Kate can kill her dad if he's mean and possibly abusing her. Sayid can torture people if it's his job and he's really, really sorry about it later. Sawyer can shoot and kill an innocent guy if he really thinks he's the guy that caused his parents murder/suicide.
Motivations. If you have a good enough motivation, you can do whatever horrible thing you feel is necessary.

All we need now is to know Ben and the Others motivations.


Oh, and I was lying before. There is a hero to Lost. The one and only Vincent! Vincent the pure, Vincent the brave, Vincent the HERO

__________________

TGrimace: you're living in the town of my alma mater...

Anyway, I guess the difference for me is that, yes, all of our characters have dark sides, but Ben is not contrite (ever) and is apparently still following whatever agenda led him to side with the Originals in the first place. (And, as an aside, I still wonder what happened to Kate when they put her in that dress and chained her to the nice beachside table.) Redemption is a big theme of this show: we still most of the characters struggling to do better. But Ben is still apparently absolutely invested in his scheme, whatever it is. Until, of course, his daughter is killed. Apparently. I'm sorry, just don't trust him.