History YMMV / Lost

** Jack, the show's main character, was intensely disliked by many fans throughout the early and middle seasons for his righteous and condescending attitude. It doesn't help that [[VanillaProtagonist practically every other character on the show is more interesting than him.]] He finally [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap gets]] [[CharacterDevelopment better]] towards the second half of the series.

** Both have stated that the main plot was figured out by the second season's start, but the success of the show demanded more seasons, watering out the main idea, with several storylines being brought in to fill the gap. At the end of season five both Cuse and Lindelof demanded that ABC would set an end date of the series so they could plan the storys conclussion.

** Especially on the DVD menus of Season 2 that answer one of the mysteries of The Others. Namely why they don't leave tracks. [[If you wait a bit at the main menu you will see their footsteps as they walk past the screen, followed by a big palmbrush that erase their footprints]]

** In "Raised by Another", as Charlie tells Claire that he'd like to be her friend, he jokes that they don't have to do each other's hair. Later on, near the peak of their romance, Claire actually does cut Charlie's hair for him.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The survivor who is sucked into the plane's turbine in the Pilot had such a memorable death that he became one of the most popular background characters of the series. Fan love for "Turbine Man" led to expansions in the extra material to the series; his name is Gary Troup, he's the author of the {{Defictionalized}} novel ''Bad Twin''[[note]]In real life, it was ghostwritten by Laurence Shames[[/note]], he may have once been in a relationship with stewardess Cindy Chandler, he intended to expose the Hanso Foundation (a goal that [[ARG/TheLostExperience Rachel Blake]] later picked up), and [[spoiler:he's even one of ''Jacob's candidates'']]).

** Likewise, the claim that the Man in Black cannot leave the island unless he kills all the candidates. This is never really explained properly. It's essentially a HandWave so that the character can do evil things, and thus give the audience a reason to root against him. For that matter, how was Jacob keeping him on the island? Did Jacob wave a magic wand and make a force field erupt whenever his brother tried to leave?

* CommonKnowledge: It's commonly said that the reason Ana Lucia and Libby were killed off in season 2 was that their respective actresses had both been arrested for driving under the influence and the producers wanted to write them out. In actuality, Ana Lucia was always going to be killed off during the season - Creator/MichelleRodriguez had only signed on for a single season from the very beginning - and Libby was thrown in when Ana Lucia's low popularity meant that her death wouldn't be enough of a shock for the viewers. Both the actresses and the producers have denied these claims, yet they remain persistent today.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The survivor who is sucked into the plane's turbine in the Pilot had such a memorable death that he became one of the most popular background characters of the series. Fan love for "Turbine Man" led to expansions in the extra material to the series; his name is Gary Troup, he's the author of the {{Defictionalized}} novel ''Bad Twin'', he may have once been in a relationship with stewardess Cindy Chandler, he intended to expose the Hanso Foundation (a goal that [[ARG/TheLostExperience Rachel Blake]] later picked up), and [[spoiler:he's even one of ''Jacob's candidates'']]).

*** While originally written by a single team, problems quickly started to rise once writers begin changing, on almost mid-season basis. To counter this, the production team set up a three-man group during filming of 2nd half of season 2. The entire job of those guys was to make sure things that were introduced at any point of the show either get some sort of pay-off later or are consistent with what was already established. Script for each episode was always reviewed by them prior filming and they also had to introduce each and every new writer into hanging plotlines and what was already established. [[BrokenBase Depending on who you ask]] it either worked out quite well, solving at least some of the issues and preventing complete explosion of KudzuPlot or still failed to reach the goal of maintaining consistency and keeping things on rails, while making three random dudes more important than entire writing team.

** WordOfGod is that Paolo and Nikki's [[BuriedAlive manner of death]] was a direct response to their Scrappy status. In season 3:

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The survivor who is sucked into the plane's turbine in the Pilot had such a memorable death that he became one of the most popular background characters of the series. Fan love for this background character led to expansions in the extra material to the series; his name is Gary Troup, he's the author of the {{Defictionalized}} novel ''Bad Twin'', he may have once been in a relationship with stewardess Cindy Chandler, he intended to expose the Hanso Foundation (a goal that [[ARG/TheLostExperience Rachel Blake]] later picked up), and [[spoiler:he's even one of ''Jacob's candidates'']]).

* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Desmond and Ben started out this way with their popularity earning them major roles.
** Rose and Bernard only get one DayInTheLimelight, but manage to be a very sweet couple.
** Juliet, the resident StoicWoobie BadAssBookworm ActionGirl.
** Daniel Faraday, as is par for the course with characters played by Jeremy Davies, made a large impact with fans in the relatively little screentime he had on the show.
** Mr. Eko came onto the scene in Season 2 and immediately earned an enthusiastic fan response, easily the most popular of the Tailies. His sudden death left many fans in despair.
** Frank Lapidus, for being an AcePilot and TheEveryman who lampshades just how bizarre the events he's caught up in are and gets some of the show's funniest lines.
--->''"Weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to."''

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: In "Pilot, Part 2", Locke telling Walt a "secret" is framed in an incredibly creepy manner, playing into the RedHerring that Locke was the one in handcuffs on the plane. We later learn that the secret was the truth of his former paralysis, meaning that Walt was the first person Locke felt he could trust with the truth of his past and the Island he already loved so much.

* JerksAreWorseThanTheVillains: The series is home to a wide variety of mass murderers like Martin Keamy, Charles Widmore, and the Man in Black, yet these characters are still entertaining to watch in their villainy. In contrast, by ''far'' the most hated characters in the fandom are Nikki and Paulo, who everyone wanted gone even ''before'' they turned out to be greedy murderers (largely because they showed up out of absolute nowhere and started chumming with the main characters like they'd always been there), and Susan and Brian Porter, who cut Michael out of his son's life out of selfish spite only for Brian to pawn Walt off the second he has a reason to.

** Seasons 1-3: [[FauxAffablyEvil Anthony Cooper]] was the [[ArchnemesisDad father]] of John Locke, whom he sired with a teenager half his age, and was a notorious ConMan who formerly earned his money by having affairs with married women, scamming them out of their money, then ditching them once he had what he wanted. Flashbacks reveal that he was the man who scammed Sawyer's parents, resulting in Sawyer's father murdering his wife then committing suicide, [[{{Jerkass}} something he's completely unapologetic about when he meets Sawyer as an adult.]] When he finally meets his son, John Locke, whom he had neglected before, [[BitchInSheepsCLothing he comes off as a kindly man and the father Locke has always wanted.]] In reality, [[BaitTheDog it's just another scam.]] Cooper's kidneys are failing and the nice guy act was just a ruse to get Locke to donate a kidney to him, after which he coldly dumps his son, telling him he wants nothing to do with him. Later on, Locke is approached by a man named Peter Talbot, the son of a wealthy woman that Cooper is planning to marry for her money. When Talbot expresses a desire to stop the wedding to protect his mother, he later ends up mysteriously murdered. When Locke confronts his father on killing Talbot, his father responds by [[OffingTheOffspring attempting to kill Locke himself]], [[DestinationDefenestration throwing him out of an eight-story-window]] and paralyzing him.

** Seasons 1-3: [[BitchInSheepsClothing Anthony Cooper]] was the [[ArchnemesisDad father]] of John Locke, whom he sired with a teenager half his age, and was a notorious ConMan who formerly earned his money by having affairs with married women, scamming them out of their money, then ditching them once he had what he wanted. Flashbacks reveal that he was the man who scammed Sawyer's parents, resulting in Sawyer's father murdering his wife then committing suicide, [[{{Jerkass}} something he's completely unapologetic about when he meets Sawyer as an adult.]] When he finally meets his son, John Locke, whom he had neglected before, [[BitchInSheepsCLothing he comes off as a kindly man and the father Locke has always wanted.]] In reality, [[BaitTheDog it's just another scam.]] Cooper's kidneys are failing and the nice guy act was just a ruse to get Locke to donate a kidney to him, after which he coldly dumps his son, telling him he wants nothing to do with him. Later on, Locke is approached by a man named Peter Talbot, the son of a wealthy woman that Cooper is planning to marry for her money. When Talbot expresses a desire to stop the wedding to protect his mother, he later ends up mysteriously murdered. When Locke confronts his father on killing Talbot, his father responds by [[OffingTheOffspring attempting to kill Locke himself]], [[DestinationDefenestration throwing him out of an eight-story-window]] and paralyzing him.

** In general some viewers were upset when the show first introduced supernatural elements into the plot, as they thought a story about a group of characters trying to survive on an uncharted island was compelling enough without needing any of that supernatural stuff added in and it turned them off from wanting to watch any further, the fact that some of that supernatural stuff was never properly explained (I.E. Miles ability to communicate with ghosts mentioned above) didn't help matters.

** Widmore's henchman, Zoe, in season 6, is widely hated for being a pointless, annoying character, eating up valuable screen time...and also for the actress claiming that she's the key to all the show's themes and is on "every page" of the series finale [[note]]Apparently the "every page" referred to [[http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/03/losts_zoe_explains_herself.html the watermark on her script]].[[/note]]. [[spoiler: In the penultimate episode, The Man in Black violently slits her throat, killing her and pleasing everyone who hated her.]]

** In general some viewers were upset when the show first introduced supernatural elements into the plot, as they thought a story about a group of characters trying to survive on an uncharted island was compelling enough without needing any of that supernatural stuff added in and it turned them off from wanting to watch any further, the fact that some of that supernatural stuff was never properly explained(I.E. Miles ability to communicate with ghosts mentioned above)didn't help matters.

** While both of them were only in the main cast for one full season, both Jeremy Davies and Adewale Akinnoye-Abaje were widely praised by critics for their performances, but were [[spoiler:killed off too early]] to get major awards recognition.

** While both of them were only in the main cast for [[EnsembleDarkHorse one full season]], both Jeremy Davies and Adewale Akinnoye-Abaje were widely praised by critics for their performances, but were [[spoiler:killed off too early]] to get major awards recognition.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: In the Flash-Sideways, Desmond running over the paralyzed Locke with his car is not funny. Desmond returning to the scene of the crime a few days later to run him over again, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beating Ben to a pulp]] when he tries to stop him, and then casually turning himself in to the police for these actions is absolutely hysterical.

** Desmond and [[BreakoutVillain Ben]] started out this way with [[BreakoutCharacter their popularity earning them major roles]].
** Rose and Bernard deserve special mention. They get only one DayInTheLimelight, but manage to be more compelling there than the main Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle.

* EpilepticTrees: One wild fan theory was the TropeNamer. Yeah, it's [[MindScrew that kind of a show]]. We've a very active WildMassGuessing page if you've got a crazy fan theory to share.

** With ''Series/BreakingBad'' over which is more deserving of the "Best TV Series Of All Time" title, as well as over [[Creator/BryanCranston certain]] [[Creator/AaronPaul actors]] from ''Breaking Bad'' beating out [[Creator/MatthewFox certain]] [[Creator/MichaelEmerson actors]] from ''Lost'' for Emmys.

** {{Guyliner}} for Richard Alpert--though he's not actually wearing any at all; [[RealityIsUnrealistic Nestor Carbonell's eyes are naturally like that]].

** The Man in Black has a whole bunch thanks to having [[NoNameGiven no name revealed]] at the beginning:
*** [[MeaningfulName Esau]]

*** "The Locke-ness Monster" probably wins for creativity.
*** Finally, his name was revealed to be 'Barry'.

* FriendlyFandoms: With ''Series/PersonOfInterest'', both being [[MindScrew complex, cerebral]] [[GenreRoulette sci-fi/action dramedies]] that are co-written by Creator/JJAbrams and [[Creator/MichaelEmerson share a star.]] In fact, a pretty good percentage of the ''Person of Interest'' fandom began watching the show precisely because they loved Michael Emerson's work on ''Lost''.

* HarsherInHindsight: The mysterious disappearance of Flight [=MH370=] of Malaysia Airlines in 09 March 2014 will inevitably get people thinking of the show.

** Played with in Locke's case. He goes back and forth from awesome to pathetic so many times that this duality has basically become one of his main character traits.
** Even though his badassery was only [[MemeticBadass memetic]], Richard Alpert could be said to have suffered from this, having spent most of Season 6 in a state of HeroicBSOD instead of actually doing anything badass. It's made worse because he BSOD'd after the first time he ever really ran into trouble. Before that, he got by on just standing around and looking badass without ever actually doing anything.
** The Others. What started as a mysterious group of rogue jungle ninjas was soon revealed to be little more than a bunch of commune dwelling nobodies that played football and had a flare for the dramatic. Although shining the spotlight on anything scary will quickly reveal that it's just a branch scratching against a window.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** A great deal of the fan backlash against Kate is due to her seeming inability to think through the consequences of her actions, or explain what she's doing to others. Certainly she couldn't have disobeyed Jack's instructions to not follow him into the jungle and ended up needing rescuing ''that'' many times, but her stubbornness on insisting "I'm going with you!" is probably the #1 screw-up viewers tend to remember her for, and it's even lampshaded by both Jack and Sawyer later in the series.
** Michael makes a string of increasingly poor decisions in Season 2, starting with crashing through the jungle screaming "WAAAALT!!!" at every opportunity despite being instructed to keep quiet by fellow survivors who have been terrorized by the Others. By the middle of the season, he's holding his friends at gunpoint and insisting he's got to run off into the jungle [[ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself all by himself]] to find Walt, despite Jack offering to help and not trying in any way to prevent Michael from looking for his son. When this plan results in him being manipulated into doing the Others' bidding in exchange for Walt, he ends up fatally shooting two of his fellow survivors (which he was never explicitly asked to do) and framing Ben for it by shooting himself in the arm and letting Ben escape. Then in a feeble attempt to get the specific survivors to come along with him that the Others requested, he doesn't even come up with a good explanation for why he wants Hurley involved, and not someone like Sayid who has actual combat experience, which tips Sayid off that Michael might be selling them out. (Which in turn leads to a "What an Idiot" moment for Jack and Sayid when they decide to play along with Michael's ruse, resulting in the Others kidnapping Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, while Michael makes a clean escape from the island). Pretty much all of this could have been avoided if Michael had let Jack and/or some of the other survivors come with him in the first place.
** Ana-Lucia's worst decisions can pretty much be chalked up to her blood running extremely hot all the time. She wants revenge on the man who shot her, so she persuades her captain (who is also her mother) to let the perp go so that she can hunt him down and kill him in cold blood later, without much of a real plan to cover her tracks. On the island, she further agitates an already terrorized group of survivors by constantly bossing everyone around, and her response when she thinks the Others are nearby is to shoot at the first sound she hears coming her way in the jungle, resulting in the death of Shannon and a less than ideal introduction to the rest of the survivors. She eventually signs her own death warrant by not communicating to anyone else about Ben's attempt on her life and seeking vengeance against him by stealing Sawyer's gun, only to find herself unable to kill Ben, ultimately leading to a desperate and unstable Michael killing her with the gun and letting Ben go free.

* DracoInLeatherPants:
** Sawyer, before he grew into a legitimately likable character.
** Ben Linus. Even the show itself wants you to like him more than he deserves.

** Season 6 suffered from this as well for a lot of viewers, mainly because of an alternate-universe subplot that was generally seen as unnecessary and uninteresting, and an increasing emphasis on mystical and metaphysical themes (which the show hadn't really embraced until that point) along with many plot elements that feel like they are there solely to fill out time(I.E. Jin inexplicably forgetting how to speak English), all culminating in an extremely polarizing series finale which answered very few questions.

* FanPreferredCouple: Some fans prefer Sawyer/Juliet just because they're so damn sick of the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle. [[spoiler:And then it becomes the official pairing in the series finale.]]

* JustHereForGodzilla: At least as far as season 1 and 2 went in their original run, part of the fanbase were people who simply wanted to get a modern Literature/RobinsonCrusoe story or maybe a serious take on ''Series/GilligansIsland''. Unsurprisingly, those were some of the first to flake out from the fandom, as the series was only ramping up mysteries and weird things, while simultaneously making the "stranded on an island" aspect virtually moot. That was perfectly summed up in the video game "Via Domus" where later on in the game one of the NPCs on the island remarks "remember when our biggest concern was finding water and shelter?"