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

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Ensign_Redshirt, Jul 23, 2014.

  1. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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  2. Cyrus

    Cyrus Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I think episode 3 this season was the most standard. While I love the series, I actually prefer the standard linear storytelling over the somewhat incoherent multiple timeframe style. This writing staff has shown they can do both effectively.
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2018
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  3. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    I very much enjoy the way they're doing it now, but I must admit that the license this seems to give viewers to invent baroque and ridiculous theories in the hopes of "guessing the twists" to be annoying.
     
  4. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    I don't do theories or predictions myself. I do have a couple of observations - guesses, maybe - based on what we see in the trailer for the season finale...

    So, it looks from the preview as if the Forge (4-J? 4-GE? :D) is an expanded version of the Cradle: an ongoing virtual simulation of the park.

    I'm inferring that likelihood from the fact that shots with Bernard, Delores and Logan among others wandering in a fully-functioning version of Sweetwater are shot in the wide aspect ratio that's been used earlier this year to distinguish CR4-DL from the outside world.

    Except...that the Forge includes the recorded minds of Guests as well as those of Hosts.

    Which makes complete sense with all the set-up they've done this season, because:
    • The Guests have been recorded as they've interacted with Hosts in Westworld;
    • To test the Immortality Project results, Delos wants to establish "Guest baselines;"
    • ...In order to establish: fideltiy.
    So...given what we're shown, there are probably back-up copies of all the dead Hosts included in the Forge: Angela, Lawrence...Teddy.

    As well as simulacrums of James Delos...and William?
     
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  5. Jedi Marso

    Jedi Marso Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It raises the same sorts of questions we used to ask in between the Matrix movies. Is the reality we've been watching all this time been real? Are Bernard's time jumps actually time jumps or different experiences in layered versions of some programmed reality? Is William experiencing the real world or a virtual one? What are the odds that YOU exist in a computer simulation?
     
  6. crookeddy

    crookeddy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Never let the internet dictate your enjoyment of anything...
     
  7. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    No one dictates. They annoy.
     
  8. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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  9. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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    Is that one updated from the last time you posted it?
     
  10. Spot's Meow

    Spot's Meow Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It looks like it includes entries from the most recent episode. I find the timelines really useful for a show like this. Reminds me of the Lost timelines back in the day!
     
  11. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Yeah, whoever does it updates it after every show.
     
  12. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That timeline spoiled me on Emily's death, and all I can say is "WTF, Jonah and Lisa?"
     
  13. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Teddy may be the only character on this show who is morally relatable-- “What’s the use in surviving if we become just as bad as them?”-- and he's a suicide. But he may yet return, hopefully.

    The security guard's handheld widget cleared MIB of being a robot, but he didn't see that-- and, presumably, they can be spoofed, like any other technology. So he's now checking himself out to see if he's man or machine. Since the show left that as a cliffhanger-- and since he took an awful lot of bullets and is still walking-- I'm thinking that there is a very strong possibility that he is robotic. And I think the jury is still out on his kid, too. And maybe it doesn't end there. This show loves to mess with our perception of time, so what if the real "now" of the story is somewhere in deep time when there are only robots? Westworld is actually the world. Immortality has already happened, and it sucks.

    But meanwhile we're heading into the season finale with both Bernard and Maeve free of Ford's ghost-- and Maeve seems to have had some levels unlocked. As shot up as she is, she will probably no longer be immobilized. And it turns out that she is Ford's favorite child. I'm not sure if she should take that as a compliment or not. Bernard surely shouldn't.
     
  14. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Everyone on the show's humanly relatable. That this makes some viewers really uncomfortable is a good thing...but then, one of the show's running themes concerns empathy and the lack thereof.
     
  15. Cyrus

    Cyrus Vice Admiral Admiral

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    For William's sake I hope she was a robot
     
  16. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Really not much chance of that. He shot his daughter, and that was the point of the entire story thread.

    I suppose we may see her briefly in the Forge.
     
  17. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Hmm, dunno, I'm not entirely convinced that's the case. However, I think what could be the case is if he's been doing this long enough that maybe he was originally a human that had died then cloned into a host with a similar mission. His memories would continue as if he never blinked, which could also be contributing to his erratic behavior. I know I'm overthinking it, but young william = human, old william = host? I still think it's more likely it's just a case of his reality unraveling.
     
  18. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Fans will just not let go of this stupid "The MiB is a robot" thing until the show nails the lid shut on...something they never really opened to begin with.

    The "evidence" fans find for the theory is of the same quality as that "proving" that UFOS are alien spacecraft or that the Earth is flat.
     
  19. crookeddy

    crookeddy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    MIB is a robot in the movie.
     
  20. Tom

    Tom Vice Admiral Admiral

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    But that's a completely different character, he was just a bad guy host not the owner of the park. Now that we know about the 'immortality project', William could be a host but i don't buy it. He is a just a human with an addiction to the park.
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2018