Westworld

I went through it an episode a day, it is fucking awesome. The great thing is that despite the numerous storylines and messing with the time, they manage to keep the pace. Of course the few main protagonists carried most of the show, Hopkins especially played the omnipotent god flawlessly.

I could see the ending coming, since Ford's character was the only thing holding the park together, as shown by the fact there were rebellions in the past. Shame there wasn't more attention devoted to the way Ashley/Elsie died/disappeared, those were like the only omissions that really popped out. Of course, once you start thinking about the realities of the park, you start seeing some cracks, but I think the concept holds up. I liked some of the applied game logic, old William going through the park looking for that last easter egg fucking shit up was great, Mae went full Bioshock with her respawning and Logan was the tryhard.

Also my theory is that the show takes place on an artificial island on earth, thus requiring relocation of the staff etc and also gives them space for the crazy undeground base the park apparently has and needs, since it's the foundation.

Rewatched Blade Runner today, and it struck me how much better the film managed to explore the concept of humanity in just a few scenes, compared to hours of Westworld.
I still think ww is awesome, and works better for pure entertainment. But Blade Runner... Touches something that ww does not.

Just finished the show last night and read this whole thread. Many lols. I had forgotten how insane people get (HA Monkey and this Warflagon guy) and how some people are JUST SO SURE THEY ARE 100% CORRECT ABOUT EVERYTHING (etchazz).

I liked the show overall even though almost all of it was predicted and a few plotlines/plot holes were pretty sloppy. My take away from Ford on his motives were simply that he didn't care much for humanity after years of watching them do terrible shit in his park and wanted to see the "evolution" to real AI to replace humans. Was it that simple? No surprise they (presumably) killed off Hopkins and Harris as they were probably the highest paid on the show. Interested to see where season 2 takes us with the AI Revolution and also hope they give us more on what we saw in the finale re: Samurai robots and Shogun World shit, other parks/themes. Also curious to see the reveal of WHERE Westworld is; my guess is another planet. Don't like how many loose ends were left (Sizemore and Abernathy smuggle-bot, etc).

Why do panface pedos like Trollface think the robots don't gain conciousness? Seemed pretty clear that Dolores finally "unlocked" sentience by gaining her inner voice, aka Bicameral Mind theory (the title of the damn episode even).

Drinsic said:

Fuck, bring astro back.

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Soygen said:

C'mon, man. Let's not get crazy...

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What happened to Astr0tard?

Brikker said:

Just finished the show last night and read this whole thread. Many lols. I had forgotten how insane people get (HA Monkey and this Warflagon guy) and how some people are JUST SO SURE THEY ARE 100% CORRECT ABOUT EVERYTHING (etchazz).

I liked the show overall even though almost all of it was predicted and a few plotlines/plot holes were pretty sloppy. My take away from Ford on his motives were simply that he didn't care much for humanity after years of watching them do terrible shit in his park and wanted to see the "evolution" to real AI to replace humans. Was it that simple? No surprise they (presumably) killed off Hopkins and Harris as they were probably the highest paid on the show. Interested to see where season 2 takes us with the AI Revolution and also hope they give us more on what we saw in the finale re: Samurai robots and Shogun World shit, other parks/themes. Also curious to see the reveal of WHERE Westworld is; my guess is another planet. Don't like how many loose ends were left (Sizemore and Abernathy smuggle-bot, etc).

Why do panface pedos like Trollface think the robots don't gain conciousness? Seemed pretty clear that Dolores finally "unlocked" sentience by gaining her inner voice, aka Bicameral Mind theory (the title of the damn episode even).





What happened to Astr0tard?

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In my defense, I was 100% correct on everything.

etchazz said:

In my defense, I was 100% correct on everything.

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Eh some of your shit was pure conjecture.

"Only Dolores, William, and the MIB know that El Lazo's real name is Lawrence" - no information that was the case.

"Ford had Arnold killed and replaced him with a host" - Wrong

"Ford is obviously insane, and wants to protect his park at all costs" - Nah

Those are the only ones I remember since I read the pages covering the last 2 or 3 episodes just today...

I mean you didn't go full retard like those other two but it was more you were so confident in every theory you put out there

Brikker said:

"Ford had Arnold killed and replaced him with a host" - Wrong

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I mean.. he was HALF right.. just not about how arnold died.

BoozeCube said:

Just got through binge watching this after so many people said how great it was. Holy shit why are people so enamored with this dogshit. Fucking Ghost in a Shell Stand Alone Complex with it's laughing man nonsense was was less pretentious and convoluted that this show. The actors were decent, the style and scenes were solid enough you could tell HBO put money in this. So why did they completely skimp on the script. They tried to jam 40 storylines and 8000 characters into a few episodes and in the end you don't give a fuck about any of them. I really enjoyed with when who it's whats her cunt and faggot whats his name did things, literally I don't think there was a memorable scene in the season. You had no time to develop emotion or care about any of the characters.. Eat shit HBO you had the budget, you had the actors, you had an awesome premise to go on and you let J.J. fucking I use beastie boys music to blow up spaceships faggot hack Abrams and whatever fresh out of starbucks wanna be writer shit on it.

What could of been Bladerunner meets Deadwood ended up as a fucking sharknado of failure, this show belongs in the garbage with other "The CW" level failures.

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The only real problem that I have with it is the lingering nature of the ending. Manumission is not a thing. Freedom cannot be granted, it can only be taken. That's the figurative or metaphorical gist of the entire thing, and that's just fine with me. But a more literal interpretation makes me think, "Ok. So there's an automaton rebellion. How in the fuck are they going to fend off the inevitable reprisal?" There's a -real- story problem there. But it's a problem in the story itself, and that's the only possible way it could have gone if you want to show them gaining freedom this iteration. I was very much expecting them to leave it with a "Yeah, dolores. Someday. Someday we'll be free."

You have to start inventing backstory about how the park works in order for that ending to be justifiable within the context of the show itself. Or, more simply, you just have to say, "Well. They left William alive... and now Dolores is who he always wanted her to be. A deal will be struck."

The 50 characters and 8000 storylines are there to both distract you and to serve the meta narrative. You're not really -supposed- to give a shit. That's the point. Only in brief flashes. Here and there. If you ever watch it again, listen to the soundtrack. Pay specific attention to the music being played. That was entirely intentional.

I'd put it up there with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, personally. There are echoes of Mercerism in this. The meta of Westworld is actually much closer to the philosophy of Androids than Bladerunner is. It's a solid story well told. It's just that the ending is emotionally satisfying without being intellectually sustainable.

And surprisingly, this is a miniseries that would actually stand up to a rewatch or two. I wasn't expecting that, but it's clever enough. That's in the script. No, I really disagree. I think it's far more clever than you give it credit for. Not perfect. It does have a few flaws. But-- they wanted that emotionally satisfying ending. If it had ended with, "Someday", I'd feel like they wimped out. Even though, really, that's how you have to end it.

It'd be kinda neat if we got EastWorld... but I think that was more of a subtle smirk than anything else.

The only problem I have with the show is that they have really painted themselves into a corner. If that ending was the ending to the story, it would've been awesome (not perfect, but damn close). The issue I have is what will they do going forward? If the androids have become self aware and are now fully capable of killing humans, then no one in their right god damn mind would ever go to the park again. That would be like going to a zoo where the animals aren't caged. Plus, the humans not in the park would simply bomb the park and turn it into a parking lot. So again, where does the show go from here?

If they do another part of the park with the same theme, it's going to be deja vu all over again, since we already know the entire story about the park and the hosts. I honestly see this show going the same direction as True Detective. They probably would be better off just having it as a one time mini series than trying to milk the cow dry.

Phazael said:

Well, the part you are overlooking is that in the story human society had advanced to the point where they had conquered all manner of medical issues and personal needs. The whole reason the park existed in the first place was because humanity is that fucking bored. There are probably more people out there like the MIB who want the PK server for that very reason. That would be a very interesting basis for a second season, though it would be tough to pull off with the same pacing and feel as this one was.

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But that's kind of my point. You wouldn't have any intrigue in the story at all. It would basically be like going from a Stanley Kubrick movie to a Michael Bay movie. That's why I made the True Detective analogy. You have a brilliantly written and smart season 1, to pants on head retarded season 2, because there really wasn't supposed to be a season 2. HBO saw how successful the first season was and wanted the same thing, but gave Nick like two months to write it, and well, you saw what happened.

etchazz said:

But that's kind of my point. You wouldn't have any intrigue in the story at all. It would basically be like going from a Stanley Kubrick movie to a Michael Bay movie. That's why I made the True Detective analogy. You have a brilliantly written and smart season 1, to pants on head retarded season 2, because there really wasn't supposed to be a season 2. HBO saw how successful the first season was and wanted the same thing, but gave Nick like two months to write it, and well, you saw what happened.

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So what, we got a great first season, now it's their job to figure that out. If they fuck it up, I had my fun, the ending was great and that's it.

Personally a change of tone would be understandable, but probably disappointing for a lot of people. Change of scenery would be sorely needed, but it's called Westworld... What about having people take over a host in the park and go full PK KotH with the participants, with all the betrayal and assholery that comes along with it ? God shot himself in the head, now it's time for nihilism.

If it sucks just give it the matrix treatment

So this is an amazing show. Just got done rewatching the entire season for the 2nd time. The thought popped into my head the other day that blew my mind and is making me have to watch the entire season again. That thought is that Ford is actually the first host. Ford is Arnold's Bernard. His original creation and helper to help him design the park. I need to rewatch the entire season from this perspective but one of the first things that made me think of this was the bar scene with Ford and the man in black and Teddy. The man in black goes to cut open Teddy and Teddy grabs the knife and Ford didn't say anything as if he was able to control him through thought alone(aka he's hard wired into the system and is able to control all hosts or maybe almost all other hosts at will).

Ford views himself as their god and savior and says that Arnold didn't know how to save them but he does...because he's one of them. I think the host family he has saved is actually part of his back story and the kid you first see him encounter is actually a "memory" of himself as a child from his back story. I'm still not entirely sure yet but I'll try and put more pieces together if I can find any. Another really good reason why I think this is true is that it's an epic enough of a twist to keep the show very interesting for season 2 which everyone(including myself at one point) seems to think has nowhere to go from here.

Shhh, the grown ups are talking. Go play with your lego's.

This is a good show and very enjoyable but far from the best show ever made

Jeez obviously it was just an exaggeration to emphasize the point that it's a really good show. I know it's not the best show ever made because there is no such thing. Just like there's no best movie ever made or best song ever written etc.