HBO's "Westworld" [Spoilers!]

[Destiel's Child]

just for some fun...

http://www.delosincorporated.com/

there is a facility map and some very funny email exchanges.  They are mostly flagged as "employee misconduct" but they all start with  "Potential"... seemed odd.

[briantw]

It strikes me that the Man in Black never actually leaves Westworld.  We've seen guests arrive twice now and he hasn't been on either train, at least not that we've seen.  He doesn't seem to have left the park at any point thus far in the show.  That's assuming, of course, that McPoyle isn't a flashback version of the MiB, of course.  Still, I believe that he has paid a massive amount of money to effectively live in Westworld.

[Winterfell is Burning]

20 hours ago, Corvinus said:

You guys are forgetting that in the first episode Ford was having a drink with an older model that wasn't even moving realistically. That model could have been a 30 year old model. Considering that the robots that the two young men are interacting with are completely realistic, even those outside of the park, I'm not buying the theory that we're seeing some of these major characters, like MiB, in the past.

Yep.

As for the MiB, the show hinted that "something" happened 30 years before the show. Seems that means the events of the original movie. What if MiB is a survivor from the film (which I haven't seen, BTW)? While most survivors would run like hell from Westworld, maybe MiB decided to stay so he could destroy the entire park (as a survivor, one imagines he would get money and a life-time invitation if he wanted) and get revenge?

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

12 minutes ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

Yep.

As for the MiB, the show hinted that "something" happened 30 years before the show. Seems that means the events of the original movie. What if MiB is a survivor from the film (which I haven't seen, BTW)? While most survivors would run like hell from Westworld, maybe MiB decided to stay so he could destroy the entire park (as a survivor, one imagines he would get money and a life-time invitation if he wanted) and get revenge?

When they are decommissioned they all have a strange look. And Delores is the oldest one although they might have done a refit on her and given her an update shell and updated her software accordingly. 

[Corvinus85]

39 minutes ago, Arch-MaesterPhilip said:

When they are decommissioned they all have a strange look. And Delores is the oldest one although they might have done a refit on her and given her an update shell and updated her software accordingly. 

One of the guys specifically says that. The quote is something like considering how many refits she had you can't tell that she is the oldest host in the park. So the old cowboy that Ford talks to is decommissioned, yes, but he moves that way because he is an older model.

[dooog]

Watched episode 2 and I'll be honest here, if it was me I never would have even reached the park... that host that was prepping William <3

[dbunting]

7 minutes ago, dooog said:

Watched episode 2 and I'll be honest here, if it was me I never would have even reached the park... that host that was prepping William <3

I was thinking the same damn thing.

[dbunting]

This will be a silly comparison but I find the "hosts" daily routine similar to those young adult books where you made choices based on the story(Choose your own adventure, had to look it up), and then it would tell you to jump to page XX and continue reading from there. Basically their day has one set routine and each encounter is that choice and how their day goes from there is based on that. Anyway that's what I am reminded of when watching the show.

[Jaxom 1974]

3 hours ago, dbunting said:

But if we are to believe what we see and what we are told (meaning this isn't Mr Robot) then that can't be true. MiB said he has been coming there for 30 years. If man on the train this week was him 30 years ago, the "hosts" all look exactly the same as they do in current time when MiB interacts with them now. Assume man on train is MiB, he sees Delores and what he sees then is exactly what the current visitors see her doing now. Shouldn't something have changed over 30 years? Same trip to town, same can falling out when she is packing the horse, story line is exactly the same?  

I don't dislike a flashback theory, but if they are doing it, it seems off.

Regarding the possibility of William being part of a flashback: Which hosts, particularly main characters of the show, did he interact with that we've seen? Dolores, Maeve, and the one other hooked, right? Not Teddy. Dolores and Maeve certainly have something else going on with them, and they're both older models...I realize this doesn't specifically address the differences between them and the older model Ford was drinking with...but I'm kinda running stream of consciousness to see of the theory fits...kinda like a little bit of Sixth Sense where Bruce Willis never actually directly engages any other characters who were living as a clue...

I think that makes sense...

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

Interesting article on Kotaku:

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/10/10/the-video-game-horror-of-westworld

It had occurred to me whilst watching the show that they had taken the Westworld concept and updated it for 2016, and what it really reminds me of is the concept of playing a computer game like Fallout or Skyrim, and how sometimes you just want to go into that world and do some crazy shit just to see what happens, or just live in it for a bit and do nothing but escape.

Interesting point about the MIB who could be like a sort of veteran player who wants to get all the achievements. 

[red snow]

2 hours ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

Yep.

As for the MiB, the show hinted that "something" happened 30 years before the show. Seems that means the events of the original movie. What if MiB is a survivor from the film (which I haven't seen, BTW)? While most survivors would run like hell from Westworld, maybe MiB decided to stay so he could destroy the entire park (as a survivor, one imagines he would get money and a life-time invitation if he wanted) and get revenge?

It could work although I wonder if it's wise to follow on from and promote a 40+ year old film when making a new show accessible? Not that I bet downloads of the original film have skyrocketed in the past week!

1 hour ago, dbunting said:

This will be a silly comparison but I find the "hosts" daily routine similar to those young adult books where you made choices based on the story(Choose your own adventure, had to look it up), and then it would tell you to jump to page XX and continue reading from there. Basically their day has one set routine and each encounter is that choice and how their day goes from there is based on that. Anyway that's what I am reminded of when watching the show.

Yeah - the same thing essentially occurs in modern computer games like Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim, etc, etc. I think it's a good way of thinking about how they run through their days in that there's a branching path for most of the key characters.

39 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Regarding the possibility of William being part of a flashback: Which hosts, particularly main characters of the show, did he interact with that we've seen? Dolores, Maeve, and the one other hooked, right? Not Teddy. Dolores and Maeve certainly have something else going on with them, and they're both older models...I realize this doesn't specifically address the differences between them and the older model Ford was drinking with...but I'm kinda running stream of consciousness to see of the theory fits...kinda like a little bit of Sixth Sense where Bruce Willis never actually directly engages any other characters who were living as a clue...

I think that makes sense...

Yeah - it's that kind of thing that has me convinced there's some deliberate misdirection (along with some pretty good clues) regarding the William scenes.

[red snow]

I'm also hoping we'll get flashbacks so we can see Old Bill in action! The actor was excellent at portraying a malfunctioning bot. I guess we could still see him as jerky-melt bot too. Maybe he's one of the steps MiB has to find in order to unlock the 100% badge in the game

 

[RumHam]

They need to release an album of those old timey piano covers when the season is done.

3 hours ago, dooog said:

Watched episode 2 and I'll be honest here, if it was me I never would have even reached the park... that host that was prepping William <3

It's interesting that there are apparently hosts who already know they're not human and aren't confined to the park. After meeting her I think it's very likely some of the staff we've met are robots. I'm thinking Bernard maybe? Especially since in the movie part of the reason things got out of hand was because the robots were designed by other computers and none of the humans actually understood how they worked. I wonder how the rebelling hosts will treat these staff robots. 

1 hour ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Interesting article on Kotaku:

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/10/10/the-video-game-horror-of-westworld

It had occurred to me whilst watching the show that they had taken the Westworld concept and updated it for 2016, and what it really reminds me of is the concept of playing a computer game like Fallout or Skyrim, and how sometimes you just want to go into that world and do some crazy shit just to see what happens, or just live in it for a bit and do nothing but escape.

Interesting point about the MIB who could be like a sort of veteran player who wants to get all the achievements. 

Makes me wonder how they deal with trolls in Westworld. I could see someone just trying to kill every host on the map. Or following others around and shooting any host they try to interact with. 

[Jaxom 1974]

Was the woman who met and helped William get ready actually a robotic host though...? 

[briantw]

23 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Was the woman who met and helped William get ready actually a robotic host though...? 

It was implied that she was but I don't think they confirmed it.  Given that she was fully willing to fool around with him after knowing him for two minutes, though, I'd say the likelihood is high that she wasn't a real person.  Either that or the people running Westworld hired prostitutes to help guests change into their Western outfits.

Logically, though, if you have the capability to create human-like robots that are fully capable of having sex with humans, why not use those to greet the guests as they enter the pre-park area?  Really no downside.

[Knight of Ashes]

2 hours ago, RumHam said:

They need to release an album of those old timey piano covers.

So far, I've managed to pick out "Black Hole Sun" and "No Surprises". I'm not quite sure if "Paint it Black" was played on the piano first before becoming ominous background music.

[TheKitttenGuard]

7 hours ago, Arch-MaesterPhilip said:

When they are decommissioned they all have a strange look. And Delores is the oldest one although they might have done a refit on her and given her an update shell and updated her software accordingly. 

End of episode one a technician stated she was repaired and updated so many times she is practically used.

I wonder, if she is the only remaining in the park then why is she the only one when all others get decommissioned. 

6 hours ago, dooog said:

Watched episode 2 and I'll be honest here, if it was me I never would have even reached the park... that host that was prepping William <3

 for you and dbunting since we all were thinking the same thing apparantly. 

[karaddin]

 

On 11/10/2016 at 5:48 AM, GeorgeIAF said:

Also, it seems that someone is talking to Dolores and is giving her tips and hints ... I think the gun she found is real and is only a matter of time before a host kills a guest, or we will even see guest on guest violence in the coming episodes.

This was my read of it as well - that's a real gun she found, not a Westworld gun and she's going to shoot a guest at some point with it.

5 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Interesting article on Kotaku:

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/10/10/the-video-game-horror-of-westworld

It had occurred to me whilst watching the show that they had taken the Westworld concept and updated it for 2016, and what it really reminds me of is the concept of playing a computer game like Fallout or Skyrim, and how sometimes you just want to go into that world and do some crazy shit just to see what happens, or just live in it for a bit and do nothing but escape.

Interesting point about the MIB who could be like a sort of veteran player who wants to get all the achievements. 

I feel like the game interpretation is the 'literal' interpretation of what is going on with the MiB. He's the most hardcore of hardcore gamer who has gotten utterly addicted to the place and given up his life to live in the game. He's subsequently decided that there is a secondary layer to the game, a meta game of sorts that is beyond the top level sandbox game and he is right. None of the park management other than Ford even know its there, but it is. For those that watched PoN its completely different, but striking the chord of the games that Samaritan was running and recruited the teen girl with - really hard to find clues that need to be pieced together to figure out the next step.

The whole William = flashback thing is just baffling to me, I didn't get the slightest hint of that watching it - just felt like a new character coming into the town. Was Maeve the old model who was about to get retired? I thought it wasn't, since they had fixed her up so she could keep working - I thought that was actually the one William spent the night with...and it was her last night before retirement. She's not a popular model anymore, so it kinda fits that he ends up with her.

ETA: Also pretty sure the one welcoming William at the very least heavily implied she was a host, if not explicitly stating it. It was after he'd turned her down, maybe one of the last things she said.

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

33 minutes ago, karaddin said:

 

This was my read of it as well - that's a real gun she found, not a Westworld gun and she's going to shoot a guest at some point with it.

I feel like the game interpretation is the 'literal' interpretation of what is going on with the MiB. He's the most hardcore of hardcore gamer who has gotten utterly addicted to the place and given up his life to live in the game. He's subsequently decided that there is a secondary layer to the game, a meta game of sorts that is beyond the top level sandbox game and he is right. None of the park management other than Ford even know its there, but it is. For those that watched PoN its completely different, but striking the chord of the games that Samaritan was running and recruited the teen girl with - really hard to find clues that need to be pieced together to figure out the next step.

The whole William = flashback thing is just baffling to me, I didn't get the slightest hint of that watching it - just felt like a new character coming into the town. Was Maeve the old model who was about to get retired? I thought it wasn't, since they had fixed her up so she could keep working - I thought that was actually the one William spent the night with...and it was her last night before retirement. She's not a popular model anymore, so it kinda fits that he ends up with her.

ETA: Also pretty sure the one welcoming William at the very least heavily implied she was a host, if not explicitly stating it. It was after he'd turned her down, maybe one of the last things she said.

They were supposed to retire Maeve but the tech tweaked her settings and sent her back. The bonus Hemsworth gave her one more night before pulling her. 

The one who was with William was an extremely popular host.

[red snow]

8 hours ago, Knight of Ashes said:

So far, I've managed to pick out "Black Hole Sun" and "No Surprises". I'm not quite sure if "Paint it Black" was played on the piano first before becoming ominous background music.

Paint it black was in episode one. The future is a fan of 60s and 90s music.