Westworld IX; 03.22.20 Divergence - Westeros.org

[red snow]

I enjoyed the finale and the season as a whole got me back on board the show when i was on verge if ditching after season 2.

I liked that sarrac was just a mouthpiece for the AI having completely embraced his lack if free will.

Bernard has clearly been offline for a while with all that dust in him. I'm interested to see where season 4 will go.

Not sure i saw the point in the amount of screentime ed harris received this season for that ending. Honestly could have had that scene in episode 1 and done something more useful with the time. 

Shame they didn't try and deliver some throughline from Hopkins character to what was happening in season 3. It's not essential but i think it would have been neat. They did quote him at some point i guess

[sifth]

Anyone else think we need more human characters? I feel like I have a hard time caring about the fate of humanity, when with the exception of Aaron Paul, all of our main characters are now robots.

[Jeor]

18 hours ago, sifth said:

Anyone else think we need more human characters. I feel like I have a hard time caring for the fate of humanity, when with the exception of Aaron Paul, all of our main characters now are robots.

Yes, I want more human characters, too. I think the Westworld writers have a problem, though - the instant they write a sympathetic human character, the audience will gravitate towards them and the human/host moral ambiguity is what makes the show interesting. I guess Caleb shows that isn't an automatic thing (I was a bit meh about him this whole time) but having more Ed Harris (so long as they made clear it was the human him, and not the host version) might have done the trick.

[Jen'ari]

They broke with season ending tradition and didn’t use a Radiohead song, but they used Pink Floyd which is just as good .

I liked the finale, it was very tense, the scene with Maeve and Dolores together in the AI setting was great.

I’m interested to see where they go with it from here though.

[karaddin]

I'm not happy about that version of Dolores staying dead, but having her deleted like that would feel cheap if they rolled it back. I hope we get another version of Dolores for ERW to play though. Maybe one recreated from Bernard's memories in the same way she recreated him.

[HexMachina]

I really enjoyed the season as a whole and the finale in particular. As others have said I really liked the world this was set in (meaning I thought it was interesting and believable not that I want to live in that kind of world!). The budget was put to good effect to make this all look gorgeous. Loved that final* shot of Maeve and Caleb watching the city burn. 

I will be sad if ERW is not back next season but I found the erasing of all of her memories a very powerful emotional scene that I wouldn't want to see undone so we'll see what happens I guess.

I also liked the idea that Park 5 was a military training facility. Fairly natural progression when you think of it.

I think there were problems with the season, in particular the uneven pacing of each character's story. William and Bernard were mostly just there as set up for next season. Halores was interesting but I don't think we spent enough time with her - again I think her arc was mostly set up for next season. Maeve too, loved her obviously, but she never felt too important until the last two episodes. 

Favourite episode was definitely Genre.

 

*I know it's not the  actual final scene, I did see the MiB and Bernard post credits scenes

[Cas Stark]

They should have ended the episode with the shot of ERW 'dead'....especially if they are not bringing back that version of Dolores. 

[RumHam]

Wouldn't Lawrence Delores just build another Evan Rachel Wood body and pop himself in there? I know there'd be some divergence but when you think about it he's as much Delores as the dead one was, or Haleores. 

Anyway I'm sure she'll be back unless Wood wants to move on. I'm still trying to figure out how Clem got un-lobotomized. 

[HexMachina]

49 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Wouldn't Lawrence Delores just build another Evan Rachel Wood body and pop himself in there? I know there'd be some divergence but when you think about it he's as much Delores as the dead one was, or Haleores. 

Anyway I'm sure she'll be back unless Wood wants to move on. I'm still trying to figure out how Clem got un-lobotomized. 

That confused me too, as I thought the point of the lobotomy was that it destroyed the Host’s pearl? Or at least irreparably damaged it.

I actually rewatched the episode again tonight because I wanted to take some time to appreciate the details instead of focusing on the plot and being so eager to know what happens. Visually this episode was pretty stunning. I know exactly nothing about camera work really but it certainly seemed to me that there was a lot of inventive camera work being used to good effect. The riot was really well done and managed to feel real somehow. And the meeting between Maeve and Delores was gorgeous too, i think probably because the peaceful, quiet setting was in such contrast to the rest of the episode.

Oh and I loved the scene with Bernard and “his” wife. Another emotional one for me and definitely appreciated the use of the music in that one.

As I mentioned before, the final shot of Maeve and Caleb was wonderful too

[DMC]

7 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I will be sad if ERW is not back next season but I found the erasing of all of her memories a very powerful emotional scene that I wouldn't want to see undone so we'll see what happens I guess.

I think the idea is to honor that Dolores' sacrifice...and to bring Wood back.  From a recent interview:

Quote

So let’s start with the most immediate question: Is Evan Rachel Wood leaving the show?

[Six second pause]

Jonathan Nolan: I f—ing hope not. Let me clarify: Dolores is gone. We’re not yet discussing publicly the direction the show is taking, but the fun thing about this show is, you know, from the beginning Lisa and I wanted to make a show that constantly reinvented itself, that could be a different show every season. I think it’s important with a show in which death can be impermanent — these are robots, after all — to mark the occasion with Dolores. That version of that character is gone. We love Evan Rachel Wood and we haven’t [sighs] started talking publicly about exactly what the show looks like going forward. But it looks very different.

Also of note from that interview:

Quote

It’s been reported in the past that you’ve conceived “Westworld” telling its story over six seasons. Is that still your goal?

Nolan: Well, I just want to clarify, you know, Lisa and I have never actually talked about a number of seasons. James Marsden mentioned five [seasons] in the first season when we were on hiatus, and more recently there’s been reporting about deals and other stuff like that. But we’ve never actually talked out loud about how many seasons we imagine this thing going, because I think you’d be foolish to. Things change, circumstances change. [...]

Joy: It would be like working on the novel and saying, this novel is going to be 436 pages.

 

[karaddin]

Yeah I'd read that interview as well, it was what prompted my comment. I do believe that version of Dolores is almost certainly dead and that it's right to keep it that way, it just didn't confirm ERW will still be around and I hope she is. It does suggest she will though, just not confirms it.

[RumHam]

I was thinking, Caleb's military training in Park 5 can't have happened that long ago. So they took Dolores out of her loop sometimes for that? Weird, especially since she's the original host. I wonder who filled in as Dolores while she was away.  

[Fragile Bird]

2 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I was thinking, Caleb's military training in Park 5 can't have happened that long ago. So they took Dolores out of her loop sometimes for that? Weird, especially since she's the original host. I wonder who filled in as Dolores while she was away.  

That definitely is weird, the thought crossed my mind as well.

[karaddin]

Yeah, I was a little thrown by that as well. Did we get a look at how old Caleb is on any of his profile screens? Are they just having Paul play a character older than he looks? He did look significantly younger in the flash back.

[sifth]

On 5/6/2020 at 1:55 AM, Jeor said:

Yes, I want more human characters, too. I think the Westworld writers have a problem, though - the instant they write a sympathetic human character, the audience will gravitate towards them and the human/host moral ambiguity is what makes the show interesting. I guess Caleb shows that isn't an automatic thing (I was a bit meh about him this whole time) but having more Ed Harris (so long as they made clear it was the human him, and not the host version) might have done the trick.

I'm starting to view season 3 of this show as a slightly more dumb version of the video game Detroit Become Human. The big difference being that despite the fact that nearly all of the main characters are robots in that game, the story is still filled with plenty of human supporting characters. While most of those human characters were horrible assholes, a few of them were good, decent and kind people and because of them I couldn't bring myself to destroy humanity in that game. In this show, most of the humans feel like after thoughts. Nearly all of them are portrayed has horrible assholes in season 3 and the few good ones only seem to exist as polite devices and don't feel like real people, like Hale's family who only exist to basically humanize Dolores/Hale and then die. I just can't seem to care about characters who are treated like plot devices and not actual people.