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Hmm. Once again, I rashly throw around absolutes like 'good' and 'bad'; also it would probably benefit me not to write posts while I'm supposed to be doing other things (like, to take a random example, say, in class, being lectured to). I'll try to say things better this time around.
Hmm, not sure things are as black and white as good leader/bad leader, I'm not even sure things are as black and white as leader/follower.
True. What I was trying to get at in my roundabout way is that Al (seems to) be trying reeeally hard to be a strong no-nonsense leader (based on what little we've seen of her), but the introduction of Sawyer and co provide a new variable that seems to mess up the dynamic between her and the tailaways. The tailaways disobey her orders, Eko especially, as previously mentioned- more on him later, because he blurs the leader/follower line considerably- but also, she's not particularly happy with the others being friendly with Sawyer/Mike/Jin, and tries to bully them into stopping, as I recall. Anyhow, I suspect that this is something new based on her reaction to it, but it might not be the case.
and an almost willful attempt to brush aside the fact that we know absolutely bugger all about these characters.
Er, not really. My point was that, in the specific set of circumstances that we've seen, Al has made a number of ineffectual decisions despite trying reeeally hard, to all appearances, to be Teh Fearless Leader. I have no idea what circumstances were like before- as I said, I'd like to know. I'm also not passing judgment on this- my post did start out as a general explanation of what I don't like about Al, but by the end I realized that all of that actually makes her an interesting character and hints at a lot of stuff that I'd like to see explained later. I would love to know how she dealt with things before S/M/J arrived, and I'd love to know why she is trying so hard (because she is, at least as far as I can tell).
I was also thinking of her in contrast to Jack, at least Jack in the first part of season 1. He emerges as the leader of the castaways essentially by accident; he doesn't take command, people just do what he tells them to because it makes sense. It's only recently that he's gained the mentality of 'I'm the leader, do what I say' (I'm thinking specifically his relationship with Locke) which is the state which Al seems to be in right now, and he only has it in his relationship to certain people. She looks bad by comparison.
Hmm. More on Mr Eko in a later post, I guess- I for one cannot wait for his flashback episode. |
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