WestWorld: ...Where nothing can possibly go worng!

Soderbergh is (maybe) making the Sot-Weed Factor as a 12-parter :D

I think it's amazing how watchable this show is despite having practically zero plot or compelling characters

Haha yes

indeed !
although I guess you're supposed to like Bernard (lost his son, tries to free/raise Dolores, seems to be a decent person...) and maybe Dork (facing his evil bro in law, saving the damsel in distress...).
but they're both so boring !
then there's Dolores who seems to be at the center of the story.

and regarding the character you have to hate, it's obviously between Logan and MIB !

Maybe you are supposed to like Bernard but in the context of a theme park where robot sex abuse is thoroughly 'OK' it is more than a little creepy that every time he does a deep dive into Dolores' psyche he always forbids her from telling anyone about it. 'Let's just keep this between you and me' gggghhhuuu

Speaking of which, it is a little weird how paranoid Bernard is about her telling anyone. She's a robot. If he says 'don't tell anyone' she won't. There isn't any grey area. So why's he so worried about it?

yeah. and it's not even like there's something really wrong in their conversations which would make it scandalous if anyone else knew.
I mean, it's not very different from what Ford does "officially" with various hosts.

Good point!

Dystopias be needing a Chosen Damsel, with a hidden nougaty center of badassness.

Anybody who knows their Shailene Woodley from their Hailee Steinfeld knows this. Dolores, Katniss, Bella from Twilight, whatserface from Divergent, River Tam.

Do I need to point out that the given name of the title character in Lolita is Dolores?

Arnold, Ford, Bernard, Ed in Black, and William McDork are all creeping on Dolores and projecting their own personal bullshit on her, almost bukkake-style. Ick.

I feel like they could be quietly phasing out that Bernard guy, like he could just not be in any more episodes and nobody would care. Borgen too - was she even in this last episode? Feel like I haven't seen her since her dinner with Hopkins in the holodeck or whatever that was, but I haven't really been paying too much attention. Did evil BiL expect there to be actual nitroglycerin in a theme park ride? idk this show is dumb as shit, unless at some point a character says "this narrative is dumb as shit", in which case it's TOTALLY CLEVER

ahah. I hadn't even thought about the obvious reason for fake nitro ! that said, MIB did have some explosives (which required an authorization from HQ... so I guess it wasn't REAL explosives ?).

also, what made MIB realize Lawrence was useless finally, after dragging him along for so long ?

bc he saw teddy who was an obv NPC upgrade

Originally MiB was amusing himself by sadistically torturing Lawrence; clearly he's interacted with him before. When the daughter provided clues about the maze, MiB may have figured he was on the right track. He used Lawrence's blood to revive Teddy (rather than waiting for the staff to fix him up and send him back out). That would have reset the storyline, I guess, which MiB would not have wanted to wait through now that he is on the scent of the maze. Sidenote: are all hosts the same blood type? Inquiring minds want to know.

Speaking of which, it is a little weird how paranoid Bernard is about her telling anyone. She's a robot. If he says 'don't tell anyone' she won't. There isn't any grey area. So why's he so worried about it?

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, November 4, 2016 6:41 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he could be suspicious that a) the bots are able to communicate/infect each other with ideas inadvertently (a concept which the show seems to have left alone for a couple episodes now? after thandie got it?) or

b) some other person, staff or not, could be talking to her or running code on her or w/e

idk if the show is meant to be clear about this, but i think the bots recognize the corporate hierarchy? they respond to hopkins like he's some kind of wizard, but the rest of them have to have these clunky formal conversations.

Well, from what I understood, initially, MIB went after Lawrence for a very specific reason, after scalping the indian. Obviously he knew Lawrence had something special regarding the maze, it wasn't just about the simple pleasure of torturing (what an interesting sentence !).
This is why I wonder why he suddenly decided he didn't need him anymore (although he still kept him with him even after his daughter gave him some info about the maze). I don't remember clearly the scene when he sends the boy for some water cos he decided to kill Lawrence to save Teddy. I missed a detail, I guess.

Do u think the presumably very educated and expensive robot experts who have to rebuild the murdered robots at the end of the day also have to clean the ~body fluids~ out of them, or are there lower paid/more downtrodden employees who do this off-screen before that

it is strange how everyone in this show is either a dumbass or a robot, but maybe after six anxiety-inducing seasons of Game of Thrones it's nice to just watch some idiots hurtle towards catastrophe without having any other stake in it idk

xp Dolores has been shown to be able to lie to Bernard

xxposts : eheh, yeah I thought about the blood type issue too but forgetting they're robots I just thought "that's pretty silly, how does he know they're the same blood type..." !

well, about the lying thing, clearly, if she can lie to other people because he asks her to, she obviously can lie to him if someone else - Ford or.. Arnold - asks her to !

Had thought the robots were about 10 years old at oldest and still then surprised taht robotic technology wouldn't be in a constant flux of updates.

i think the answer to this was alluded to in the latest episode: when MIB mentioned that he opened up a host and it was beautiful inside. he was disappointed when they decided to go with the human-like technology for the hosts. it would seem that robotics technology continues to evolve and improve while human-bio-robotics has been perfected

also makes me wonder that if the human-bio-robotics is a perfect facsimile, then maybe the programming tech could be used on actual humans too?

Would be surprised if anything was ever permanently perfected. Thought everything was open to improvement unless laws and strictures were passed preventing it.

also makes me wonder that if the human-bio-robotics is a perfect facsimile, then maybe the programming tech could be used on actual humans too?

isn't it what the tech guy trying to revive the bird is all about ?

Wait, does Dolores lie to Bernard?

As I recall it, she lied to Ford - that is, she told Ford she hasn't spoken to Arnold in 34 years. Then she said something to the air along the lines of "I didn't tell him anything; he doesn't suspect."

What I take from this is that Arnold, before dying, conferred immortality upon himself by effectively uploading his brain into the cloud. He transferred his consciousness into the host-hivemind so that he can continue to manipulate events from beyond the grave. Arnold knew that the corporation would keep retiring and replacing individual 'bots, so he knew he wouldn't be able to live on if he only infected one host.

Note that Dolores is one of the oldest, but her original daddy had also been pretty well-used, in a variety of storylines. So he'd be a very good vector for transmission of the Arnoldvirus. Arnold MADE HIMSELF CONTAGIOUS, y'all.

oh wait, I think you're right, she lied to Ford, not to Bernard.

A friend of mine is very hyped about the "Ed Harris and dork guy are the same person" theory, citing Lawrence popping up very quickly and far away for the dork's story 'after' being killed by Harris. also Harris talking about how he saved the company at some point in the past (which i don't fully remember), and the brother-in-law talking about getting in on the company 'now'. i was not convinced, but it's looking more likely?

also i do not know anyone's character name in this show except for Dolores, had to look up the wiki when you all were talking about "Ford" and "Logan".

regarding names, same here : I had to look up on hbo's website first !
as for MIB being the dork, I doubt it (unless they change the latter's character dramatically in the next episodes/seasons). at this point I have a hard time imagining him raping Dolores (even if it's years later) !

also i do not know anyone's character name in this show except for Dolores, had to look up the wiki when you all were talking about "Ford" and "Logan".

lol ikr

if ed harris = dork and this show is taking place in 2 periods decades apart i am officially out, fuck that

isn't it what the tech guy trying to revive the bird is all about ?

yeah that's what i was thinking

If anybody is the same guy as another guy, look at Knee-Pants Kid, not the adults.

Knee-Pants Kid is either a simulacrum of Young Ford or of Arnold

if ed harris = dork and this show is taking place in 2 periods decades apart i am officially out, fuck that

pretty sure this isn't the case

I'll see this to the end but I'll be very surprised at myself if I bother to look at a second season

if ed harris = dork and this show is taking place in 2 periods decades apart i am officially out, fuck that

woah glitch in the matrix

I said Bernard when I meant Ford earlier

but the fact that she said "he doesn't know" in reference to Ford suggestss Bernard's "have you ever lied to me/don't tell anybody about this" stuff isn't going to do him much good either

I dunno about Ed Harris/dork being the same guy but those stories are definitely taking place in two different time periods

we do not see the MIB rape dolores. We see him get out a knife. I am pretty sure he was modifying her or something, or checking for maze clues.

those stories are definitely taking place in two different time periods

different days or weeks maybe? the daily resetting of the bots gives them a lot of outs on this...

my basic assumption is that like vg npcs the bots have short hourly/daily routines but if a guest gets involved with them in a longer narrative then they go off on that for the duration.

i haven't really put together what happened with 'lawrence' tho, seeing him pop up in badguytown read like it was meant to mean something but idgi

I had thought that was just pre-hanging Lawrence? Earlier in his routine before he'd been caught by the law? No? Keep in mind it was like 1am and I had imbibed a fair bit

Like, Lawrence gets Mad-Maxed for his blood, the park crew comes and fixes him up and then sets him back at the beginning of his loop, then our heroes run into him

those stories are definitely taking place in two different time periods

They have set up enough things so that if McPoyle does turn out be young MIB it won't be a shock: MIB having familiarity with the robots we see McPoyle interacting with, McPoyle learning that WW may be going under financially/MIB being given anything he wants (investor who saved the park?)

this neatly sums up the evidence for multiple timelines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLli7Gc1ZBU

in any case, the show is definitely going out of its way to misdirect the viewer.

man i have some kind of allergy to ropy-ass theorizing and the marshaling of 'evidence' thereto. a mystery is a different thing than doing a puzzle!

try being into twin peaks rn :-/

Is it misdirecting or just leaving everything vague, a la Stranger Things, which ended its first season with a "well, that happened" indifference.

Eh for better or worse this show seems to be a puzzle box/theory-generating machine by design so AFAIC it's fair game to over-analyze and speculate about it.

re:misdirection: well, having Dolores fall into McPoyle's camp seemingly as a result of some recently recovered memory or whatever made it seem like the two stories were happening concurrently, but that could be some fucking-around-with-us stuff

yes i think you're right, don't mean to sound snappish

my preferred mode of engagement is to let those kind of thoughts spin out in the moment in a cloud of wonder and not commit them to youtube

I prefer to swish an ep around in my mouth for a few seconds and then spit it out into a cup

spreading the resultant paste, etc