Another site recently pointed out an interesting (continuity) question: Why did the Egyptian hieroglyphics (in Dead is Dead) depict the smoke monster seemingly hundreds of years before we saw it created?
Anubis first appears in the Old Kingdom texts (2886 BC-2181 BC). The Roman Kingdom to Roman Empire spanned from 700 BC to 1453. Many believe that the shipwrecked Claudia, the Roman mother of Jacob and MIB, was probably from the Roman Empire period of 70 BC to 30 BC (which corresponds to the last Pharaoh of Egypt, Cleopatra.)
The real question is then: Why did the Egyptian hieroglyphics (in Dead is Dead) depict the smoke monster seemingly THOUSANDS of years before we saw it created?
In the Season 6 mythology, we were told that the Smoke Monster was created when in Jacob's rage, he threw the dead or dying brother into the light source (against his mother's teaching) and the Smoke Monster emerged from the Source.
However, it is possible that the Smoke Monster had existed before but it was "bottled up" at the source until another human soul came by for it to attach to and leave its underworld prison. The blast door showed the island "security system" as Cerberus, Hell's three headed vicious guard dog. If you believe that the island is a forehell in the afterlife, the concept of pure evil incarnate as the Smoke Monster can be a timeless beast that may have challenged all the island souls since creation, including the ancient Egyptians thousands of years before Jacob and MIB.
It would make sense that an Egyptian underworld god like Anubis would have to deal with an evil entity like the Smoke Monster. For if the Smoke Monster was not Jacob's brother, but an evil spirit that assumed MIB's personality and memories (and added to its own like how to make a FDW), the material was present in the story to make a rich tapestry of character development. But TPTB missed an opportunity to tie together all the diverse plot elements into a final cohesive ending.
