Westworld

I believe Maeve's decision to remain was both free will and part of her programming. The memories of her daughter are triggered and her maternal instinct kicks into gear the moment she sees the mother and daughter on the train. Without this chance encounter, she would have fled to the mainland. However, her existence is rooted in this memory or "cornerstone" and it's not something she can easily shake, effectively keeping her prisoner of the park.

The hosts didn't gain consciousness guys. Ford unlocked a new park--future world. Where the challenge is real, and the fight against the machines has begun.

Lithose said:

The hosts didn't gain consciousness guys. Ford unlocked a new park--future world. Where the challenge is real, and the fight against the machines has begun.

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I don't think any of the hosts gained consciousness, except for Dolores, and maybe Maeve (Maeve being left to the audience's interpretation).

etchazz said:

I don't think any of the hosts gained consciousness, except for Dolores, and maybe Maeve (Maeve being left to the audience's interpretation).

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This. And I'm not sure why everyone hates the Maeve conclusion so much. The journey there, perhaps, as it was kind of a mess. But her consciousness (through a hard decision) was a good story.

I predicted basically everything that'd happen by about episode 5 or 6 (Dolores being Wyatt, and Teddy remembering it as a different storyline was after episode 8 I think), except for Ford suiciding.

I'm going to go ahead and say that this would've been perfect had it ended with a single season. "The story about how AI took over." Not sure how they'll do 5 seasons of it.

Edit: Also good call on the after credits scene. Weird for a TV show finale to do something like that.

I love the easter eggs in this show. The song Arnold plays for his son is Debussy's "Reverie."

TJT said:

That I could buy. The Dolores on the beach scene was just a subplot as that wasn't the new narrative at all! But Dolores not gaining consciousness would defeat the purpose of the first season. She has to be both conscious and trapped. Ford did say they had a lot more suffering to go through still.

Then you gotta resolve the pesky situation how the freed hosts killed a bunch of security guards and board members.

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All hosts, programmed to appear human (Remember they specifically say they have the ability to do this). Why? Because a back story and corner stone memory is important to make the hosts believable and build their personality. This entire thing was the corner stone memory for a park built off of the future world war. Ford? He was a host, too. Think about it, if there are multiple parks, how much sense does it make for the real Ford to be working in West World? Makes more sense if each park has a Ford-bot. Future world's Ford-bot is part of the back story.

As for consciousness. I should walk that back, hosts are conscious, but that was needed to make future world work. Its why conscious hosts from all parks are pulled into this one, to give the humans the best experience with hosts that ARE alive and don't have the little tell tale signs of being on rails their discerning, long time customers can see (MIB is a beta tester.) Future world is the ultimate park, one you need to sign a release for...for discerning veterans of their other parks that have become bored with 'safe' game play.

Having now finished the series I have to say that many of you are very, very good guessers. I had a long conversation with a friend about the show prior to either of us watching the final episode and you guys' theories with a couple lucky guesses of my own and I'm going to look quite a bit smarter than I am.

I won't be reading any threads for season two however, some of you are a little too good.

Props to everyone.

Lithose said:

All hosts, programmed to appear human (Remember they specifically say they have the ability to do this). Why? Because a back story and corner stone memory is important to make the hosts believable and build their personality. This entire thing was the corner stone memory for a park built off of the future world war. Ford? He was a host, too. Think about it, if there are multiple parks, how much sense does it make for the real Ford to be working in West World? Makes more sense if each park has a Ford-bot. Future world's Ford-bot is part of the back story.

As for consciousness. I should walk that back, hosts are conscious, but that was needed to make future world work. Its why conscious hosts from all parks are pulled into this one, to give the humans the best experience with hosts that ARE alive and don't have the little tell tale signs of being on rails their discerning, long time customers can see (MIB is a beta tester.) Future world is the ultimate park, one you need to sign a release for...for discerning veterans of their other parks that have become bored with 'safe' game play.

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Swear to God if this is how it goes down...

Only thing I'm sad about is we didn't cut back to the control room and see that everyone had suffocated.

I fucking love that part in the movie. Makes me laugh every time.

I really like where Maeve's storyline is headed, but I really wish they had provided more realistic or satisfying incentives for Felix and Sylvester to help her. Was it just pure desire to help someone they thought was essentially human at that point? She lost all leverage the moment she incinerated herself.

TJT said:

As much as I totally dig the idea that that was the reveal for future world. The invading army will injure board members with real damage but not kill them. Selling the board on the thrill for true poop-sockers (although that part requires a little help because most people would freak the fuck out in this situation).

It also adds to the biggest problem I have with the series and my most hated thing in any narrative. Motherfucking deceptive writing. Misdirects the audience has no idea are even possible are not misdirects or sleight of hand.

Its the fucking Chewbacca defense of film and word designed to confuse you only to say, "didn't see THAT one coming now did you!?"

Also if they were all hosts then who was the audience for the reveal?

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Hopefully they don't do that much for season 2. It was fun figuring stuff out, but it was kind of rough with the deceptive writing. Still love the show, though.

TJT said:

Also if they were all hosts then who was the audience for the reveal?

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No one. This was done purely for the hosts--it was the only way to program them to make it absolutely believable so their consciousness would be kick started and they would react as hostile machines wary of humans. Everything will now be absolutely authentic for the guests. MIB was a beta tester. (Could even go further, we still don't know what the outside world is like--maybe humans are upgraded to host bodies a while ago, and are immortal, boed beings who really needed an immersive experience. So like gods they've been creating worlds to throw themselves into.)

But in general, I think pretty much this is a Hardcore server. For the hardcore crowd, based off the ONLY thing that could be truly authentic with real hosts--one where they know they are hosts and are hostile in the narrative due to that. (Because conscious hosts in any other narrative would discover their world isn't real. The beauty of this story is it the hosts can know about their world, and still deliver an experience.)

Last episode was kind of boring. The season as a whole wasn't bad but the last few episodes felt pretty formulaic and predictable.

Maeve getting off the train to go back for her "kid" was annoying.