On November 15 2016 13:57 The_Red_Viper wrote: Hopkins is still great as Ford though, even though it's not really more than "the evil mastermind" trope tbh. But he just plays the character beautifully and every scene he is in is elevated to another lvl simply because he is part of it.
Or maybe it's just because he happens to be a well known star and so you associate his stardom with great acting, as with most Hollywood bullshit awards that are really just studio schemed marketing opportunities using celebrities as branding.
You are the guy people should rather ignore considering what you have posted so far, but hey i will still bite: No Hopkins is no star who cannot act, in fact he is one of the better living actors around these days. His sole presence in scenes elevates them and without him i probably wouldn't watch Westworld anymore because i think some of the writing, etc is more than questionable. Watch this video again and while there is always interpretation you might not agree with 100%, it's still a pretty good one showing what a damn amazing actor he is.
I still think the show should basically end after one season, but hey maybe they can surprise me with season 2
On November 15 2016 13:57 The_Red_Viper wrote: Hopkins is still great as Ford though, even though it's not really more than "the evil mastermind" trope tbh. But he just plays the character beautifully and every scene he is in is elevated to another lvl simply because he is part of it.
Or maybe it's just because he happens to be a well known star and so you associate his stardom with great acting, as with most Hollywood bullshit awards that are really just studio schemed marketing opportunities using celebrities as branding.
You are the guy people should rather ignore considering what you have posted so far, but hey i will still bite: No Hopkins is no star who cannot act, in fact he is one of the better living actors around these days. His sole presence in scenes elevates them and without him i probably wouldn't watch Westworld anymore because i think some of the writing, etc is more than questionable. Watch this video again and while there is always interpretation you might not agree with 100%, it's still a pretty good one showing what a damn amazing actor he is.
I still think the show should basically end after one season, but hey maybe they can surprise me with season 2
During the production process, they took a break to complete the entire script for the series. And according to Nolan, they have the entire script and therefore enough content for 5 seasons.
Yeah i know and i cannot see how you can fill 5 seasons with it tbh. That works for tv series which are character centered, Westworld definitely isn't though.
On November 16 2016 00:33 ivancype wrote: these are robots, they should be able to calculate the arrows trajectory well enough to at least not hit vital areas in the guests body and focus on the other hosts.
A fast arrow from a recurve bow is 70m/s. Assume something like 50 m/s as more realistic. Nobody can aim to miss vital areas 2-3 seconds into the future on a target that dodges. I guess you can script it so they don't fire from far distances. If you have somebody using a long bow a range of 300m is possible (if not likely to actually be used). Which would be totally impossible to predict actual hit area when taking into account a dodging target.
The scenarios we saw it used in was on horse back and what looked like roughly 30-50m (long hunting range). So 1s travel time with three moving pieces effecting the hit area on top of wind and so on. (Horse of archer, targets horse and target. We can ignore the one firing since that is in control.)
The way Ford controls all hosts, sometimes through voice commands, sometimes non verbal, lets me to believe that he himself could be AI. That will also explain his omni awareness of everything happening in the park and his ability to control and filter all information. What would make this prospect interesting is that Ford will essentially be the point of technological singularity - AI creating robots on its own. Perhaps the maze is a test designed by Arnold to contaminate the AI and its creations from escaping the park, hence the line from the first episode "you are in the prison of your own sins". Ford literally cant escape the boundaries of the park cause Arnold designed a fail switch to prevent AI from escaping into the real world.
On November 15 2016 18:21 Acrofales wrote: How have they made arrows and tomahawks safe to humans? Controlling who can use weapons clearly isn't useful in a chaotic battle between cowboys and Indians.
They're not inherently safe but the tribe could do something like only attack township folk or Confederates in situations that always allow humans to run away, and then the tribe could itself be driven away by reinforcements of otherwise idle Union soldiers if it gets too deep. The threat could feel very real but there's no actual danger to any guest.
The show has never resolved the mundane issue of what happens if a human gets hurt in a combat situation by twisting their ankle or falling off their horse. Does the fight continue and resolve while they're hurt or does everything stop so they can go back to safety?
On November 16 2016 19:14 disciple wrote: The way Ford controls all hosts, sometimes through voice commands, sometimes non verbal, lets me to believe that he himself could be AI. That will also explain his omni awareness of everything happening in the park and his ability to control and filter all information. What would make this prospect interesting is that Ford will essentially be the point of technological singularity - AI creating robots on its own. Perhaps the maze is a test designed by Arnold to contaminate the AI and its creations from escaping the park, hence the line from the first episode "you are in the prison of your own sins". Ford literally cant escape the boundaries of the park cause Arnold designed a fail switch to prevent AI from escaping into the real world.
Yeah Ford could be an AI, it was foreshadowed in the conversation with the MIB who says something along the lines of "I wonder what i would find if i cut you open" At the same time it seems somewhat unlikely because of aging, etc, but i feel that wouldn't stop the writers tbh
On November 16 2016 08:14 sertas wrote: 80% of the episodes now are pointless anyway i cant imagine 5 seasons of this slow pace
I don't know why you would say that. The question "Arnold vs Ford" is still very interesting. What did Arnold hide in the center of the Maze, or in the hosts themselves, that is so mysterious even the seemingly omniscient Ford has no clue? This question runs parallel to the (admittedly less interesting) one of "hosts vs humans" with Maeve.
Just to say that this season at least will continue being interesting. But yeah, they probably can't keep reusing the same characters and themes for 5 seasons.
In favour of that theory, I was talking to a friend who hasn't heard of the two timelines theory, and he brought up some points that don't make sense, unless Ford is also an android.
It mostly revolves around when Dolores started to realize the world wasn't what it seemed. That was with her father and the photo. Later, when the outlaws kill her dad, she glitches and sees her old dad there, and then gets memories about being shot. That means when she rides off and stumbles upon William and Logan, is after her old dad glitched.
Her old dad was investigated by Ford and Bernard. If that is 30 years before MIB, then Ford hasn't aged a day in the meantime.
Someone should have noticed. But maybe they all end up like Theresa? Which in turn, someone should have noticed, right?
On November 17 2016 07:25 Acrofales wrote: In favour of that theory, I was talking to a friend who hasn't heard of the two timelines theory, and he brought up some points that don't make sense, unless Ford is also an android.
It mostly revolves around when Dolores started to realize the world wasn't what it seemed. That was with her father and the photo. Later, when the outlaws kill her dad, she glitches and sees her old dad there, and then gets memories about being shot. That means when she rides off and stumbles upon William and Logan, is after her old dad glitched.
Her old dad was investigated by Ford and Bernard. If that is 30 years before MIB, then Ford hasn't aged a day in the meantime.
Someone should have noticed. But maybe they all end up like Theresa? Which in turn, someone should have noticed, right?
Ageing is easy to simulate. Create a series of robots a few years apart in age. Transfer memories. Need to be small enough age gaps to not trigger a shock. Easier if the person in question normally uses make-up that would hide the small stuff that is wrong.
Ford could be a real person but regularly create doubles of himself (with his skill at programming the bots, it wouldn't be hard to make them seem human, he could even direct them remotely). Explaining why he always pops up from out of nowhere.
On November 17 2016 07:25 Acrofales wrote: In favour of that theory, I was talking to a friend who hasn't heard of the two timelines theory, and he brought up some points that don't make sense, unless Ford is also an android.
It mostly revolves around when Dolores started to realize the world wasn't what it seemed. That was with her father and the photo. Later, when the outlaws kill her dad, she glitches and sees her old dad there, and then gets memories about being shot. That means when she rides off and stumbles upon William and Logan, is after her old dad glitched.
Her old dad was investigated by Ford and Bernard. If that is 30 years before MIB, then Ford hasn't aged a day in the meantime.
Someone should have noticed. But maybe they all end up like Theresa? Which in turn, someone should have noticed, right?
We joked with some friends that everyone working on or being inside the park are actually hosts and the only real person is MiB playing it solo like skyrim
On November 17 2016 07:25 Acrofales wrote: In favour of that theory, I was talking to a friend who hasn't heard of the two timelines theory, and he brought up some points that don't make sense, unless Ford is also an android.
It mostly revolves around when Dolores started to realize the world wasn't what it seemed. That was with her father and the photo. Later, when the outlaws kill her dad, she glitches and sees her old dad there, and then gets memories about being shot. That means when she rides off and stumbles upon William and Logan, is after her old dad glitched.
Her old dad was investigated by Ford and Bernard. If that is 30 years before MIB, then Ford hasn't aged a day in the meantime.
Someone should have noticed. But maybe they all end up like Theresa? Which in turn, someone should have noticed, right?
Ageing is easy to simulate. Create a series of robots a few years apart in age. Transfer memories. Need to be small enough age gaps to not trigger a shock. Easier if the person in question normally uses make-up that would hide the small stuff that is wrong.
While certainly possible, that's not the case here: Ford is the same age Anthony Hopkins when investigating Dolores' father as when chatting to the MIB.
As for multiple copies of Ford, that's certainly possible, but doesn't solve the aging problem. This means that one of the following is true:
1. William != MIB and the two stories are not set very far apart from one another, which raises the question of why bother with 2 different timelines in the first place.
2. Not multiple timelines, and there is a different explanation for the different logos and Lawrence being in 2 places at once.
3. My interpretation of Dolores' awakening is wrong.
4. The show runners spent a fortune on Anthony Hopkins, so wanted to use him in every Ford scene, whether that makes sense or not. And hence Ford doesn't age.
5. Ford is an android, and nobody human stays around long enough to notice the lack of aging.
Hmmm, I read someone on reddit positing that Dolores appearing in William's camp is not actually after her escaping from the shooting, but a flashback she is having of the first time she ran away.
However, this doesn't make a lot of sense. For starters, there is absolutely no hint that this is the case: she is actually having flashbacks/forwards (same as during the shooting) when they get to Pariah, and the entire story is told with a focus on William's perspective, and less so on Dolores' perspective. More importantly, if this is the case, we are ONLY being shown Dolores' flashback, and not what she is doing in the now. And finally, this would imply a 3rd timeline where Dolores escapes the shootout (because in the MIB timeline she was *presumably* raped and murdered by the MIB).
So while possible, it would be very shoddy editing in order to be able to have a "reveal" in a later episode that this was all in Dolores' mind as she rides away from the shoot-out at her farm. I think Westworld is overusing cheap editing tricks in any case, but at least they have put some hints and clues (different logos, absence of Maeve in the bar in William's time). This "reveal" would be without any hints, and would be a pretty bad use of the "surprise, it was all just a dream" trope.
Hmmm, I read someone on reddit positing that Dolores appearing in William's camp is not actually after her escaping from the shooting, but a flashback she is having of the first time she ran away.
I think this is indeed the popular theory these days. When she runs away, the scene almost seamlessly switches to the past (I don't remember if there is anything visual to hint at this when it actually happens in the show), where she obviously wouldn't remember MiB, because he's allegedly William.
I think whatever lies at the end of Dolores and William's trip will be underwhelming as a reveal. I can't really imagine anything having a big impact.
Imo the outcome of the Dolores and William trip rests on two critical conditions
1. Is William the MiB 2. Is Arnold still alive in that time frame
Nothing so far convinces me that the second one is true, but if Arnold is already dead, then William = MiB becomes far less likely, since judging by his line from the bar scene with Ford, the MiB played an important part in keeping the park going after the death of Arnold. Imo either the first critical failure in the park wasn't related to the death of Arnold, but rather the actions of Dolores, or the first critical failure was indeed caused by the death of Arnold and the trip of Dolores and William shows us something else.
I don't know where I picked this up, but I have the feeling that Dolores is the one who killed Arnold (or responsible for, or strongly tied in any way). Maybe mostly because the characters are likely a closed set now, so someone we already know must have interacted in some way with Arnold for him to die (and his death being called a critical failure of the park), and out of those qualifying, Dolores is the one that sticks out. Does it seem completely absurd? I don't know.
It's possible that William = MiB still, but that William won't know about that event, for some reason.