Past Leaders- Whidmore vs Linus

Kind of an off beat theory… I know all of you are discussing “THE END”, but this I think is still an important part as these two have roles yet.

There has been a lot of thought and debate as to who is the good guy and who is the bad guy- is it Ben Linus or Charles Whidmore? Who is fighting for the good of the island? Well, there was an entire season where we were creeped out by Linus and was sure he was the bad guy. But he was proven to be only human. Then we are introduced to Whidmore, who lo and behold, turned out to be an ex-Other. That was another “holy-s**t” moment.

But what it all boils down to, is, I THINK, the battle of Ben and Charles is purely personal and egoistical… and its all just nonsense when it comes to The Island. BOTH of them were fighting for the good of the Island, or what they thought was the good of the Island. We can see that now when Linus just wants to leave because he realized that he sacrificed “the only thing that mattered to him” for that sake of his power on the island… and Whidmore returning to fight Locke.

However, I’m not sure as to WHO they were taking their orders from. We see that Whidmore wanted young Linus to kill baby Alex :O. That was very creepy. Also, more disturbing is that Ben seemed to be taking his orders from the man in the cabin… which was MIB :O. I think Richard was the only one who could directly talk to Jacob, at least in the post-Black Rock era.

Anyway, I’m just coming back to this site since season 5, so i dont know if this has been discussed ad nauseum, and i dont know if it even matters. But consider it my welcome-back theory, and I’d like to know what everyone thinks. Linus? Whidmore? Both? Neither?