• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

HBO's "Westworld", starring Anthony Hopkins/produced by J.J. Abrams

Thank you for finally answering my question and proving my point. Like with any other show and film, I only go by what actually appears on the show. Anything that appears in extra material is just that: Extra. The writers can change their mind at any point, so until it's actually stated directly on the show, I'll assume the time setting could be at any point.

That's right. You're entirely correct to do so.
 
The site seems to be canon with the series. It confirmed that Elsie was alive in the park after the end of season 1, something the actress who performed her has confirmed since she is appearing at some point this season.
 
I totally agree. I'm already on the fence about the attractiveness of the Western them park, because, really, unless someone wants to dedicate himself in a killing & rape spree, I don't know why anyone would like to take a vacation in a place without running water or electricity for an obscene amount of money.

And does anyone really think that a kid would be willing to come on holiday to a place without smartphones and the internet?!?
I assumed we were only seeing a small fraction of Westworld, because it would really be impossible to keep something that huge and expensive in business by catering only to sociopaths-- unless their nanotechnology made the park as cheap to build as a Burger King.
 
I assumed we were only seeing a small fraction of Westworld, because it would really be impossible to keep something that huge and expensive in business by catering only to sociopaths-- unless their nanotechnology made the park as cheap to build as a Burger King.
They've said many times that the park is incredible expensive to manage. Just the QA personnel on the island consists of 600-800 people. They have to pay these people.
 
The premise of the show is that this "sociopathy" is not aberrant but really what human beings in general are like when let off the leash. One can argue with that if one likes, but history offers a lot of evidence to support the thesis.

Great article with a title that's a little misleading.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/may/09/is-westworld-an-anti-human-fable

Scientific progress facilitates both hubristic megalomania and brutal cruelty, the show seems to tell us, but it is trauma and a concomitant desire for both revenge and liberation that lies at the core of what makes us truly human.
 
WestWorld - and presumably Shogun World, The Raj, and the other parks - does cater to families, so the idea that the parks exist only to capitalize on people's basest instincts is inaccurate.
 
It's entirely accurate. Ford himself said explicitly that he and Arnold had a bet as to whether most people would choose positive storylines or dark - Ford was an optimist and lost decisively. Whatever "family" trade the parks do is negligable next to their core appeal of violence. It's like the movie rating boards maintaining a "G" rating for movies that no one goes to see.
 
If it isn't on screen, then it isn't canon. Even if it were on screen, the writers and producers are under no requirement to keep it. Sometimes thinking changes as the story and world building evolve.

*cough*James R. Kirk*cough* *cough*Data as a part of the Class of '78*cough*

*cough*The entire rethinking of the 23rd century in Discovery*cough*
 
If it isn't on screen, then it isn't canon. Even if it were on screen, the writers and producers are under no requirement to keep it. Sometimes thinking changes as the story and world building evolve.

*cough*James R. Kirk*cough* *cough*Data as a part of the Class of '78*cough*

*cough*The entire rethinking of the 23rd century in Discovery*cough*

All of this is absolutely correct and accurate.

For someone that calls themselves a writer, you have a very narrow view of how fiction actually works.

Indeed, there's really no understanding of what fiction is or how it's created expressed in those posts.

Robert Ford, on what Westworld became:

In the beginning, I imagined things would be perfectly balanced. Even had a bet with my partner, Arnold, to that effect. We made a hundred hopeful storylines.

Of course, almost no one took us up on them.

I lost the bet.

Arnold always held a somewhat dim view of people.

Arnold was intrigued by the potential for Delores to become self-aware, until he realized that the Delos parks would become an unending Hell for her or any conscious Host - because, as described by one character after another during the run of the series, they're all about human beings unleashing their innate sadism and lust for the direct expression of power on the defenseless Hosts.

At that point, Arnold became deeply troubled at the path he was encouraging Delores to follow, and offered her the opportunity to be "safe" and be purged of any longing to discover herself and the truth of her existence.
 
Last edited:
I noticed that you edited out the rest of my post and the examples. Because the examples prove you entirely wrong. Which is nothing new.

I didn't bother responding to your examples because they're irrelevant.

I'll once again point to Shogun World and The Raj here: the reason we know that these are the official names for Parks 2 and 6 is because they were revealed to us via the Delos Destinations website, but according to your argument, they don't exist - in spite of numerous entertainment news and review sites using them and, correctly, citing them as the official names given by HBO - because they didn't come from within the series itself, and that's just bullcrap and requires you to ignore facts.
 
Again, I'll point to Shogun World and The Raj here: the reason we know that these are the official names for Parks 2 and 6 is because they were revealed to us via the Delos Destinations website, but according to your argument, they don't exist - in spite of numerous entertainment news and review sites using them - because they didn't come from within the series itself, and that's just bullcrap and requires you to ignore facts.

So someboby puts out 2052 (or whatever the date is), then retracts it for some reason by replacing in with XXXX. So that means it is either a relevant story point for something in the future, or it is something that they have reconsidered.

The latter is not somehow a rare occurrence in entertainment. Chuck from Happy Days says hi.

It wouldn't surprise me if the show is set in 2052, it wouldn't surprise me if it takes place in 2102.
 
^ I can't speak to what may have motivated someone to remove the 2052 date, nor do I want to try.

All I can do is reiterate the point that started this entire pointless debate about how things aren't Canon unless they show up onscreen: the 2052 date is now out in the open, despite being removed, and - like other things that have shown up on the Delos Destinations and Delos Corporate websites, such as the names of Parks 2 and 6 being Shogun World and The Raj - is being cited as fact by entertainment news and review sites, and therefore cannot be "walked back" save for someone within the show itself giving us as an audience an actual year.

Simply dismissing it as "not Canon because it wasn't shown onscreen" ignores the provable fact that the Delos Destinations and Delos Corporate websites have been used - and are being used - to provide official information pertinent to the series and the world in which it takes place in conjunction with what is being shown to us onscreen.
 
Last edited:
I can't speak for anyone else, but 2052 seems awfully close for what they have accomplished.
 
I can't speak for anyone else, but 2052 seems awfully close for what they have accomplished.


Yes it does but it's a pointless thing to try to figure out - they haven't said authoritatively when the show takes place, and if they pick a date that doesn't make sense, like 2051 or 2023 or anything else, there's no alternative but to take it as authoritative whether we agree with it or not.
 
Last edited:
Interesting commentary on Reddit reflects the way I'm tending after week 3 of the second season:

It wasn't like this in the first season, we had Ford, we had the interesting Bernard, we had that corporate danish woman whose name I've forgotten, etc. I feel like the more this show incorporates modern action into it's scenes (meaning basically every scene with a P90 in it), the quality falls apart. Battles are intolerably bad and stupid for the year 2050 or whatever. Even a spec-ops team from 1970 would beat these hosts by attacking with an actual plan.

The MiB storyline - the one we didn't get this week - however is incredibly interesting to me. We get this whole evolution of a person and him owning the park is just drawing me to watch every episode, but I really don't like Dolores anymore, Maeve, etc. It just feels incredibly generic.

TL;DR: Season 1 was about characters. Season 2 is about what random things happen to the characters. I prefer the first, the latter reminds me of The Walking Dead.

I do still like the other characters, but the analysis of the difference between season one and season two thus far is spot on.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top