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shadowkat1. Did you know that a man was hit by a plane while jogging on the beach with his i-pod? It happened in Hilton Head. Private Plane built by the pilot, apparently not that well, and had engine trouble - so the pilot opted to land on the beach of all places. Which normally would not be an issue...except, well you know the visiting business man jogging on the beach plugged into his i-pod. There were other people walking about, but they skeddaled when they heard the planes approach. The man unfortunately could not hear it, because of his ear-phones. Good news? He never knew, died on impact, no pain. Plus no other injuries. Bad news? Left behind a family with three kids. (Hmmm. So if he was single with no family it wouldn't be a huge loss? Good to know. Being single and all. How expendable I truly am.) Anyhow...apparently the odds of getting killed while running on the beach listening to your i-pod are higher than winning the lottery - who knew? Moral? Running on the beach is healthy. But you might want to leave the i-pod at home, along with the cell-phone. These gadgets are truly hazardous to one's health.
2. I've been compulsively scanning the internets for spoilers on the Buffy Comics. And there aren't any, well not any that I don't already know. Highly frustrating. The TV show had spoilers. Stupid comics don't. Interestingly enough, I don't always do this. I don't hunt nor want spoilers for Lost, Caprica, and 99% of the tv shows on. It's only Buffy, BattleStar Galatica (to a degree) and whatever soap opera I'm addicted to at the moment.
3. Saw Caprica this morning. This show works for me whenever Daniel Graystone and Zoe are on-screen. I'm bored whenever Amanda and Clarice Willow are onscreen. And the meandering of Josef Adama in Virtual Reality Land or New Cap City is equally boring to me, although his scene with his brother Sam, who is rapidly becoming one my favorite characters, is quite wonderful. Tamara wandering about New Cap City on the other hand was intriguing and gripping. I also find Lacey's story gripping and whenever she's on screen it is cool. So this show is unevenly written.
The match of wills between Daniel and Zoe in last night's episode was remarkable. She knew that the gun he gave her to shoot the dog was filled with blanks - the robot that she's inside could sense it. But she admits to Lacey that if it had been filled with actual bullets - she would have turned it on her father and shot him. I can't say I'd blame her. What Daniel does to her is horrific. He basically tortures her in the hopes that she'll slip up and reveal that she is alive and well inside the robot. He is willing to break any rule to retrieve "his" daughter as if she belongs to him. It's a rather interesting character thematic - the idea of ownership.
Josef and Daniel share that in common - that both see these girls as their property, theirs.
And this is true of many parents - they have tendency to see their children as belonging to them as part of them, as a projection of themselves. You are smart because I'm smart. Your accomplishments are a reflection on me, etc. When in truth this is not so. Children are individuals, unique. While parents do have an affect on who they become, they are not the sole or only factor and they do not own their children.
Stolz plays Daniel in a way that is sympathetic. He is vulnerable. You do care about him and you can see him going a bit crazy with grief. It is in some respects an amazing performance.
He raises the bar quite high.
Zoe also is quite well played - her battle of wills, her desire to tell but fear to do so, her inability to trust him.
That dynamic is well-played and an ironic take on a similar one between Gaius Baltar and the manipulative Six.
The other scene that I found interesting was a relatively small one between Josef Adama and his brother Sam, where he asks Sam - what goes through his head when he kills someone. The conversation and the ensuing holo game that Josef plays to find his daughter are commentaries to our own society's rather desensitizing take on violence. The woman that Josef meets in the game tells him that what happens in the game feels real and is real within its confines. Josef keeps stating it's not though. When he leaves the game after being unable to kill someone - at least initially - he asks Sam that question. Sam states - I don't think about it. It's not real. The person I kill is not real to me. To me they are just a target. Not human. Just something in the way. Something that I have to remove. That's it. I don't think of them as a living thing. The speech he gives Josef Adama reminds me a great deal of the speech that Spike gives Angel in Damage, where he tells Angel that he never saw his victims, they weren't real to him. Just a target. Just food. Just the rush of violence. He says the same to Buffy in numerous episodes - happy meals with legs, or to Wood, just a slayer. He in his head, rationalized killing people by making them targets. Not people. They aren't real. He didn't care about them because they weren't real or people to him. It's a different type of evil than say...the serial killer who targets people because they are real and he gets off on taking them apart, corrupting them, turning them into himself. It's also if you think about it - a commentary on us. Violent video games where we just kill things. Violent tv shows and blockbuster movies - where people are killed but we feel nothing. Even the news and media. And what, Caprica asks, is it doing to our children - who are watching and playing increasingly violent video games, where there are no consquences for killing someone, no remorse - it is not real. It's just a game. What happens, ask Caprica's writers, when the line between reality and makebelieve becomes blurred? Josef Adama wonders this very thing as he pursues his dead daughter's avatar in the makebelieve world, killing all who get in his way.
I'm guessing Marsters arc continues into next season, since the season final is next week and we've only seen Marsters for one episode. He's supposed to have a four episode arc.
4. While I was rather unimpressed by Lost this week...I did find a few bits worth noting.
Kate and Jin and Sawyer are clearly not completely on board with Team Smokey. Sawyer appears to playing Smokey and was not surprised when Not!Lock revealed himself to be Smokey. I'm guessing Sawyer knows quite a bit about who and what Smokey is - considering he was head of security at the Dharma Initiative for three years with Juliet, and they both knew the pylons kept Smokey out. Regarding Smokey - it was Smokey who manipulated Ben into killing everyone at the Dharma Initiative and into joining the Others. He appeared as Ben's mother and talked to him. It was not Richard Alpert who got him to do it - unless I remembered it wrong. Sawyer also did not lie to either Widmore or to Smokey - which is why he is the best liar Smokey had met. It may also explain why it is difficult for people to lie to Sawyer, he usually sees right through them.
He knew before anyone else did that Sayid Jarrah was a torturer who got off on it. And he
knew how to play him. He also knew right off the bat that Smokey wasn't Lock. Liars tend to know when others are lying. What makes Sawyer good is he doesn't really lie. He tells half-truths. And what people want to hear. He told Widmore that he'd bring Smokey to his doorstep. And he told Smokey that he told Widmore this and what Widmore was doing on the Hydra Island with the cages. He told both that he had no problem with them fighting one another, he just wanted off the island, along with everyone with him.
Another interesting tid-bit about Sawyer? He makes friends with other people. His friends with Jin, Hurley, Lock, and Miles. Jack doesn't. Not really. We see this in the islandverse and the sideways verse.
That's the only thing I thought was interesting in the Sideways verse - that Sawyer, after his confrontations with Charlotte and Miles, attempts to make amends with both. Charlott's reaction perplexed me - because she was clearly hunting that file on Sawyer and clearly knew that James Ford had it. She was thrilled when she found it. So why the uppity bit? Is she trying to convince him she was just fiddling about? What is she hiding and why do I get the feeling that they won't tell us? The fact that he tells Miles and informs him that he wants to kill Cooper for what he did - also intrigued me. That's the big difference between James Ford in islandverse and JAmes Ford in Sideways verse. In Sideways verse - he does trust people, he lets them in. Prior to Juliet - James Ford did not let anyone in. Not really. So they are being consistent in their depiction of the characters' lives being better in Sideways verse without manipulative Jacob and the island. Also, what the characters do in the sideways verse is organic to who they are in islandverse.
Ben is a teacher, who cares deeply for Alex - and struggles with a desire for control. He is manipulative in both worlds, but also in both - he cares deeply about those put in his care.
In Sideways - he helps them, he aides them, he chooses them over power. In Islandverse - he chooses power, and fails them miserably.
Locke - desperately wants to be someone, wants to believe in something, to find meaning, to find a purpose - if it is only being a teacher and being loved. In Sideways - he finds it.
In Islandverse - he can't.
Jack - desperately wanted his father's approval, to feel important, to feel sucessful outside of his father - he realizes in the Sideways verse that he always had it, and that it is not important, that it is not vital and it does not make him successful. He has a son and through his son - he realizes that his father's words which felt like darts meant to wound, were not deliberately so...he comes to an epithany of sorts. While in Islandverse - he's floundering, desperate, and suicidal, letting everyone down in the process - it's still about Daddy, with Jacob merely another representation, as is Smokey.
Kate - it's about bringing the mother and child together. She had a crazy mother who defended an abusive father. Kate wanted a relationship with her mother, and pursues it, with no luck.
So shifts to one with Claire's son, and when that falls through, shifts to finding Claire and reuniting Claire with Aaron. In Sideways verse - she succeeds. In Islandverse = she fails.
Sayid - wants to prove he is a good man and not the product of his actions, years spent as torturer in Iraq. That he is worthy of Nadia. In Islandverse he fails over and over again.
Each time when he is put to the test, he kills and tortures. In Sideways verse - he is equally forced to kill, but not quite for the same reasons. And he does not end up with Nadia, he stays away protecting her.
Sawyer - wants to find the man who destroyed his family. In Islandverse - he does, he kills him and has to live with it, is devasted by the act - and manipulated into it by Locke and by association Ben. In Sideways verse - he can't find Cooper, and is looking, while it eats away at him but has not turned him into Sawyer/Cooper. His love of others, need to help and protect others wins out in the end, as it does in Islandverse, but more so here.
All of this makes me wonder what I'm supposed to be thinking of Jacob, who feels more and more like a manipulative bastard. I'm hoping this is true. I'm hoping that the story isn't a simple one a la The Stand, with the good guys fighting the bad guys. But I'm skeptical.
Next week's episode gives me some hope...since we get to see Alpert's back story and perhaps some insight on Jacob. Alpert clearly doesn't like Jacob much. The only two things of interest in Jack's game of chicken with Alpert and the dynamite two weeks ago - was that a)Alpert had given up and sees Jacob as a manipulative bastard, just as Jack does. And b) no one touched by Jacob can die on the island. Note John Locke died off the island, so this was not a problem.
People can die off island if touched by Jacob, but not on. Which is what the boy meant when he told SMokey - you can't kill him - he can't kill Sawyer. It also may explain why Sayid came back from the dead. And Juliet was killed (not touched by Jacob.) Personally, I'd rather have Juliet...Sayid's story got stale a year ago. I love Sayid, but they just keep repeating the same thing over and over again. Plus we got too many male characters - I vote we ax a few of them to even up the tally. Also, as a side note - where are Rose and Bernard? Not dead, I hope.
I liked those characters.
Okay bedtime.
2. I've been compulsively scanning the internets for spoilers on the Buffy Comics. And there aren't any, well not any that I don't already know. Highly frustrating. The TV show had spoilers. Stupid comics don't. Interestingly enough, I don't always do this. I don't hunt nor want spoilers for Lost, Caprica, and 99% of the tv shows on. It's only Buffy, BattleStar Galatica (to a degree) and whatever soap opera I'm addicted to at the moment.
3. Saw Caprica this morning. This show works for me whenever Daniel Graystone and Zoe are on-screen. I'm bored whenever Amanda and Clarice Willow are onscreen. And the meandering of Josef Adama in Virtual Reality Land or New Cap City is equally boring to me, although his scene with his brother Sam, who is rapidly becoming one my favorite characters, is quite wonderful. Tamara wandering about New Cap City on the other hand was intriguing and gripping. I also find Lacey's story gripping and whenever she's on screen it is cool. So this show is unevenly written.
The match of wills between Daniel and Zoe in last night's episode was remarkable. She knew that the gun he gave her to shoot the dog was filled with blanks - the robot that she's inside could sense it. But she admits to Lacey that if it had been filled with actual bullets - she would have turned it on her father and shot him. I can't say I'd blame her. What Daniel does to her is horrific. He basically tortures her in the hopes that she'll slip up and reveal that she is alive and well inside the robot. He is willing to break any rule to retrieve "his" daughter as if she belongs to him. It's a rather interesting character thematic - the idea of ownership.
Josef and Daniel share that in common - that both see these girls as their property, theirs.
And this is true of many parents - they have tendency to see their children as belonging to them as part of them, as a projection of themselves. You are smart because I'm smart. Your accomplishments are a reflection on me, etc. When in truth this is not so. Children are individuals, unique. While parents do have an affect on who they become, they are not the sole or only factor and they do not own their children.
Stolz plays Daniel in a way that is sympathetic. He is vulnerable. You do care about him and you can see him going a bit crazy with grief. It is in some respects an amazing performance.
He raises the bar quite high.
Zoe also is quite well played - her battle of wills, her desire to tell but fear to do so, her inability to trust him.
That dynamic is well-played and an ironic take on a similar one between Gaius Baltar and the manipulative Six.
The other scene that I found interesting was a relatively small one between Josef Adama and his brother Sam, where he asks Sam - what goes through his head when he kills someone. The conversation and the ensuing holo game that Josef plays to find his daughter are commentaries to our own society's rather desensitizing take on violence. The woman that Josef meets in the game tells him that what happens in the game feels real and is real within its confines. Josef keeps stating it's not though. When he leaves the game after being unable to kill someone - at least initially - he asks Sam that question. Sam states - I don't think about it. It's not real. The person I kill is not real to me. To me they are just a target. Not human. Just something in the way. Something that I have to remove. That's it. I don't think of them as a living thing. The speech he gives Josef Adama reminds me a great deal of the speech that Spike gives Angel in Damage, where he tells Angel that he never saw his victims, they weren't real to him. Just a target. Just food. Just the rush of violence. He says the same to Buffy in numerous episodes - happy meals with legs, or to Wood, just a slayer. He in his head, rationalized killing people by making them targets. Not people. They aren't real. He didn't care about them because they weren't real or people to him. It's a different type of evil than say...the serial killer who targets people because they are real and he gets off on taking them apart, corrupting them, turning them into himself. It's also if you think about it - a commentary on us. Violent video games where we just kill things. Violent tv shows and blockbuster movies - where people are killed but we feel nothing. Even the news and media. And what, Caprica asks, is it doing to our children - who are watching and playing increasingly violent video games, where there are no consquences for killing someone, no remorse - it is not real. It's just a game. What happens, ask Caprica's writers, when the line between reality and makebelieve becomes blurred? Josef Adama wonders this very thing as he pursues his dead daughter's avatar in the makebelieve world, killing all who get in his way.
I'm guessing Marsters arc continues into next season, since the season final is next week and we've only seen Marsters for one episode. He's supposed to have a four episode arc.
4. While I was rather unimpressed by Lost this week...I did find a few bits worth noting.
Kate and Jin and Sawyer are clearly not completely on board with Team Smokey. Sawyer appears to playing Smokey and was not surprised when Not!Lock revealed himself to be Smokey. I'm guessing Sawyer knows quite a bit about who and what Smokey is - considering he was head of security at the Dharma Initiative for three years with Juliet, and they both knew the pylons kept Smokey out. Regarding Smokey - it was Smokey who manipulated Ben into killing everyone at the Dharma Initiative and into joining the Others. He appeared as Ben's mother and talked to him. It was not Richard Alpert who got him to do it - unless I remembered it wrong. Sawyer also did not lie to either Widmore or to Smokey - which is why he is the best liar Smokey had met. It may also explain why it is difficult for people to lie to Sawyer, he usually sees right through them.
He knew before anyone else did that Sayid Jarrah was a torturer who got off on it. And he
knew how to play him. He also knew right off the bat that Smokey wasn't Lock. Liars tend to know when others are lying. What makes Sawyer good is he doesn't really lie. He tells half-truths. And what people want to hear. He told Widmore that he'd bring Smokey to his doorstep. And he told Smokey that he told Widmore this and what Widmore was doing on the Hydra Island with the cages. He told both that he had no problem with them fighting one another, he just wanted off the island, along with everyone with him.
Another interesting tid-bit about Sawyer? He makes friends with other people. His friends with Jin, Hurley, Lock, and Miles. Jack doesn't. Not really. We see this in the islandverse and the sideways verse.
That's the only thing I thought was interesting in the Sideways verse - that Sawyer, after his confrontations with Charlotte and Miles, attempts to make amends with both. Charlott's reaction perplexed me - because she was clearly hunting that file on Sawyer and clearly knew that James Ford had it. She was thrilled when she found it. So why the uppity bit? Is she trying to convince him she was just fiddling about? What is she hiding and why do I get the feeling that they won't tell us? The fact that he tells Miles and informs him that he wants to kill Cooper for what he did - also intrigued me. That's the big difference between James Ford in islandverse and JAmes Ford in Sideways verse. In Sideways verse - he does trust people, he lets them in. Prior to Juliet - James Ford did not let anyone in. Not really. So they are being consistent in their depiction of the characters' lives being better in Sideways verse without manipulative Jacob and the island. Also, what the characters do in the sideways verse is organic to who they are in islandverse.
Ben is a teacher, who cares deeply for Alex - and struggles with a desire for control. He is manipulative in both worlds, but also in both - he cares deeply about those put in his care.
In Sideways - he helps them, he aides them, he chooses them over power. In Islandverse - he chooses power, and fails them miserably.
Locke - desperately wants to be someone, wants to believe in something, to find meaning, to find a purpose - if it is only being a teacher and being loved. In Sideways - he finds it.
In Islandverse - he can't.
Jack - desperately wanted his father's approval, to feel important, to feel sucessful outside of his father - he realizes in the Sideways verse that he always had it, and that it is not important, that it is not vital and it does not make him successful. He has a son and through his son - he realizes that his father's words which felt like darts meant to wound, were not deliberately so...he comes to an epithany of sorts. While in Islandverse - he's floundering, desperate, and suicidal, letting everyone down in the process - it's still about Daddy, with Jacob merely another representation, as is Smokey.
Kate - it's about bringing the mother and child together. She had a crazy mother who defended an abusive father. Kate wanted a relationship with her mother, and pursues it, with no luck.
So shifts to one with Claire's son, and when that falls through, shifts to finding Claire and reuniting Claire with Aaron. In Sideways verse - she succeeds. In Islandverse = she fails.
Sayid - wants to prove he is a good man and not the product of his actions, years spent as torturer in Iraq. That he is worthy of Nadia. In Islandverse he fails over and over again.
Each time when he is put to the test, he kills and tortures. In Sideways verse - he is equally forced to kill, but not quite for the same reasons. And he does not end up with Nadia, he stays away protecting her.
Sawyer - wants to find the man who destroyed his family. In Islandverse - he does, he kills him and has to live with it, is devasted by the act - and manipulated into it by Locke and by association Ben. In Sideways verse - he can't find Cooper, and is looking, while it eats away at him but has not turned him into Sawyer/Cooper. His love of others, need to help and protect others wins out in the end, as it does in Islandverse, but more so here.
All of this makes me wonder what I'm supposed to be thinking of Jacob, who feels more and more like a manipulative bastard. I'm hoping this is true. I'm hoping that the story isn't a simple one a la The Stand, with the good guys fighting the bad guys. But I'm skeptical.
Next week's episode gives me some hope...since we get to see Alpert's back story and perhaps some insight on Jacob. Alpert clearly doesn't like Jacob much. The only two things of interest in Jack's game of chicken with Alpert and the dynamite two weeks ago - was that a)Alpert had given up and sees Jacob as a manipulative bastard, just as Jack does. And b) no one touched by Jacob can die on the island. Note John Locke died off the island, so this was not a problem.
People can die off island if touched by Jacob, but not on. Which is what the boy meant when he told SMokey - you can't kill him - he can't kill Sawyer. It also may explain why Sayid came back from the dead. And Juliet was killed (not touched by Jacob.) Personally, I'd rather have Juliet...Sayid's story got stale a year ago. I love Sayid, but they just keep repeating the same thing over and over again. Plus we got too many male characters - I vote we ax a few of them to even up the tally. Also, as a side note - where are Rose and Bernard? Not dead, I hope.
I liked those characters.
Okay bedtime.
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 07:49 pm (UTC)I only saw that episode once when it originally aired, so admittedly have vague memories of it. I don't remember Charles Widmore. So was that brought up later? Or was he actually in that episode?
Also, do we have any firm evidence or confirmation that Sayid shot Ben in both Islandverse and Sidewaysverse? Or just Islandverse? Or just Sidewaysverse? (See, this is why I hate time-travel stories they cause anomalies to occur. In Sidewaysverse - Sayid never made it to the island. In Islandverse - Sayid goes back in time and does shoot Ben. Yet, is that undone by the bomb? So is Ben ever really shot? Does it ever happen? )
Assuming it did and does exist in both universes...how does Ben's actions become Sayid's fault? There's no "direct" causal relationship here. Sayid may have shot Ben, but after that point - there are five different possibilities: 1) Ben is evacuated by his Dad after he is healed by the others and returned to the Dharma Intiative (Sidewaysverse), 2) Ben is immediately, and when he is, he's a bit traumatized and doesn't trust the others, because an other shot him. He has no memory of them saving his life . 3) Ben
gets an infection and dies.. 4) Ben worships the others. 5) Ben is infected as Sayid was by a part of the Island...and it twists him up inside. 6) Ben would have done it regardless of Sayid shooting him, because has no memory of that event.
In short - you cannot draw a causal relationship between the two events. Sayid's shooting of Ben does not necessarily explain or lead to Ben's actions latter. If they did, Ben would be acting differently in Sideways verse (unless of course he wasn't shot in that verse - which doesn't make sense, since the shooting happened prior to the bomb going off and splintering off the verse. So it had to affect him in that universe.).
You can however draw a casual relationship between the ghost of his mother who kept talking to him on the other side of the pylons. (Which we've been told was Smokey by other episodes - his dead daughter, Eko's dead brother, Jack's dead Dad...all versions of Smokey). She kept appearing - telling him the Dharma Initiative was bad and to seek out the others. If it weren't for Smokey, Ben wouldn't have gone. We also don't know if the leader of the others, Widmore, chose to follow Smokey's advice or Jacob's or his own. (I'm betting his own and Smokey may have aided by getting Ben to him, much as he sent Sawyer to Widmore in the current timeline.)
Sigh. Now I have a headache. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 10:29 pm (UTC)Okay, I've checked the episode transcript. Here are the Smokey-as-Emily scenes:
ROGER: Wow... [Sees the wrapped present] It's your birthday. Sorry I forgot. Kinda hard to celebrate on the day you killed your mom. She was just seven months pregnant. We went for a hike, but you had to come early. Now, she's gone. And I'm stuck here on this island...with you. [Pauses, grunts] Happy birthday, Ben.
[Ben runs out, crying. He goes straight to the sonar fence, hearing whispers. His mother then appears in front of him, on the other side of the barrier.
BEN: Mom?
[Ben runs toward the barrier]
EMILY: Ben, don't!
BEN: Mom!
EMILY: It's not time yet, Benjamin.
[She leaves]
BEN: Mom!
[Ben begins to run, stumbling, back toward the Barracks]]
and:
[Ben heads to the sonar fence armed with the deactivation code. He enters it, turns the dial, and the sound of the fence buzzing dies down. He pulls out a white rabbit, and shoos it across the fence line to ensure it really is off, then runs through, collecting the rabbit as he goes. He heads into the jungle, hearing whispers]
BEN: Mom..? Mom? Mom! Mom! Mom!
[Ben hears the whispers, and then turns to see a long-haired Richard Alpert standing behind him]
RICHARD: Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Whoa. Whoa, hey, hey, whoa, I didn't mean to scare you. Wait, wait! Are you lost? Wait!
BEN: Are you one of them?
RICHARD: One of whom?
BEN: A hostile.
RICHARD: Do you even know what that word means? What's your name?
BEN: Ben.
RICHARD: Ben? So you wanna tell me what you're doing in the middle of the jungle all by yourself?
BEN: I left home, and...I'm looking for my Mom.
RICHARD: You think she's out here?
BEN: You wouldn't believe me.
RICHARD: Try me.
BEN: She's dead.
RICHARD: Did she die here, on the Island?
BEN: No. When I was a baby.
RICHARD: Did you see her, out here, Ben, in the jungle?
BEN: She talked to me.
RICHARD: What did she say?
BEN: That I couldn't come with her. She said it wasn't time yet.
RICHARD: You should go home now, your people will be looking for you.
BEN: I don't want to go back there! I hate it there! Take me with you.
RICHARD: Maybe that can happen, maybe. But if that's what you really want, Ben, if that's what you want, I want you to really think about that. And you're gonna have to be very, very patient.
End of quote. These are the only two times Ben sees Emily. You'll notice she never tells him Dharma = bad/ Others = Good. She does entire him to leave the compound, precisely by telling him it's not time for that YET, but Ben came to the conclusion that the Others were nifty and the Dharma Initiative rotten in other ways. The fact Richard was there, friendly and mysterious certainly helped. As did being healed from a lethal wound. As did living with Roger the abusive alcoholic chez Dharma, which nobody in Dharmaville seems to have done something about.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-22 04:24 pm (UTC)Smokey and Jacob tend to like to be subtle in their manipulations...I'll give them that.
But..
The fact Richard was there, friendly and
mysterious certainly helped. As did being healed from a lethal wound. As
did living with Roger the abusive alcoholic chez Dharma, which nobody in
Dharmaville seems to have done something about.
I don't think you can include the lethal wound in there - since there is still no causal evidence linking it to Ben's actions later. Or for that matter any evidence that it happened in the islandverse and not just the sidewaysverse.
Here's an argument against it:
1. Ben most likely does not remember being healed by the others. We have no evidence in the series that he would necessarily. And none that he doesn't.
2. His father may well have changed his attitude towards Ben because of the wound. Note the father shoots Sayid and in the Sideways verse - the father has a positive relationship with his son.
3. As demonstrated by Ben's initial trust in Sayid because Sayid is an other or hostile, it is more than likely Ben would have followed this course without Sayid's interference. The fact Sayid is a hostile and shoots Ben - would make Ben less likely to trust them.
But that fact is changed or rendered null and void, when Richard helps him. So Sayid's actions are a wash either way.
In short, it really doesn't matter that much in the islandverse whether Sayid shot Ben or not, has little to no effect on Ben's trajectory as far as I can see.
He would have gone down the same path regardless.
BUT...Sayid's actions do however affect Sayid's journey or arc. Because Sayid shot Ben, Ben's father fatally wounds Sayid - sending Sayid to the same healing waters that Ben was sent to. Except Sayid died, while Ben did not. And then came back to life.
But did he change? Not really. Sayid like Ben, would have more or less done the same things regardless of whether he'd been shot and died. He's consistent throughout - he kills to see Nadia again or to revenge her death.
So ultimately? Sayid's shooting of Ben does not create Ben or result in Ben doing what he does. It has little effect. Because all of that would have happened anyhow.
What does tell us - is what motivates Sayid, Sawyer, Juliet, Jack, and Richard Alpert. What they'd do if confronted with this choice. It also tells us something about Ben and his father's relationship - enough to potentially explain why it is positive in the Islandverse.