Post by Winter_King on Mar 31, 2020 12:01:43 GMT
Maeve walking around unhindered with Felix in the 6th was another alarm bell. It told of some major contrivance taking place for the sake of the action to come. As if Ford was secretly watching over it all and arranging for it to happen. Shortly thereafter, the cartoon cats at the bottom of the hierarchy, whose job it was only to clean and repair "killed" hosts, were able to alter Maeve in ways that fundamentally changed her, disrupting her storyline without having to ask for permission or anyone being notified of it.
But the big fuck-up was when Bernard was revealed as a host. It was not a surprise because the Internet had somehow puzzled clues to it, yet it made the whole worldbuilding fall down by contradicting itself. We had been told and shown how intensive training hosts had to be, yet were to believe that a copy of Arnold had been made to such perfection on the side no one ever noticed. The next season would "explain" this by showing Dolores as the maker, the same one who was still somehow struggling within her loops and being interrogated by Security Stubs outside of them. Rules had been set only to be thrown away for the sake of twists. The intricate story had turned into the proverbial game of chess with a pigeon who kicks down pieces, shits on the board and claims to have won. All that remained at this point was violence, skin and music. I liked the music.
By the end of the 7th episode, there was no point trying to piece things together anymore. The William twist had also been guessed and while the look, behaviour and speech of both actors made it implausible, it was yet to be. After all, it would be more of a Big Shocking Twist® if it made less sense. At least some similarity in the person would have been needed. Now, it seems they did it again in the 2nd season, with Dolores acting just like the person she was not and could not possibly know.
When I see people complain about the "masterpiece" of the 1st season not being renewed in the 2nd, I wonder what they understood of it. I saw someone speculate that some re-writing took place after the first half of the 1st season, explaining how things went to junk in the 2nd half. I believe that.
There's a long burial of the 2nd season too:
As explained in the TV show, they established that the path to artificial conciousness isn't a straight line or a pyramid but journey inwards. Like a maze. She was talking about freedom when she was attaining conciousness. I don't exactly know what part are you talking about Dolores talking about freedom but Dolores was achieving conciousness even before Arnold's death. That's why he killed himself in order to try to shutdown the park.
A Westworld tech walking around with a host in a place where Westworld techs were walking around with hosts wouldn't wouldn't be a redflag. And yes, Ford programmed her to escape because Maeve was his favorite host and she was on the path to conciousness even before the current events. At least since William killed her daughter. Plus the reason why they were able to alter Maeve was because Felix had stolen a control tablet before when he was trying to work with a host bird.
The Arnold/Bernard part is hardly contradictory. Even before the reveal that Arnold was a host, it was revealed that Ford had been building hosts on the side. Like his host "father" and version of himself as a child. And it wasn't quickly. Arnold died 30 years before the events of the first episode. Host Bernard was completed ten years after Arnold's death with Dolores helping him achieving fidelity. So yeah it's pretty plausible that no one that knew Bernard was the same as Arnold.
My biggest beef with the William reveal is that they purposely cheated the audience with using de-aging for a young Robert Ford but using another actor to play a young William. This could've been avoided if they used another actor to play young Robert Ford. And before de-aging was common, younger versions of older characters were played with other actors in tv shows and movies. Speech and behaviour were often overlooked. I also think they didn't gave the actors a full picture of what character they were playing so Jimmy Simpson didn't know he was playing the young Man in Black. In the second season, there is a clear attempt of Jimmy Simpson to look more like young Man in Black.
I've often hear people complaining about how Westworld is going to turn into another Lost but in my view there is a clear difference between the two. Both the first and second season went with the mystery box but Westworld reveals most of the major mysteries at the end of season. That's why I never understood the complains about the second season. The first season tries to actually deceive the audience with multiple timelines hidden. The second season is pretty clear. There are two main timelines. One taking place after Dolores kills Ford and another taking place 11 days after that event. The finale brings the two timelines together. Lost on the other had had mysteries that lasted the entire show.