The fires in California have burned down Main Street in Westworld.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/11/ ... urns-down/

I caught (or read) that all the scenes in the cradle were presented in a different aspect ratio. Knowing this helps follow the plot a bit more. In S02E10, the aspect ratio changes when the hosts leave the valley and enter the (virtual) afterlife. All the scenes inside "Loganworld" also also presented in that different aspect ratio. I'll have to go back through the previous episodes and see if any other scenes jump out at me.

If season 3 takes place completely in the real world then I suspect the storytelling may be a bit more linear (or at least easier to identify time jumps. Then again, I'm not holding my breath.

For awhile I thought that the twist was that much of what happened in season 2 was actually in the "forge" or "cradle" virtual reality simulations but now I'm thinking that the twist is that Ford had been replacing humans with hosts since before the Delos investment, what, 30 some years ago. If Ford replaced James Delos' son with a host before the initial investment then there's no stopping him. By now, Ford has been in place to control anything he wants outside the park including the well heeled Delos corp and probably has tentacles into government and finance beyond. Westworld guests are all rich enough to pay, what, $50k a day? Why not replace lots of them with hosts that would do his bidding in the real world. I guarantee that the Ford that got killed by Delores was a host like they've shown William was. Ford had all his shit uploaded to another network then destroyed the park to distract everyone.

I'm kind of uncomfortable that some sci-fi writers have me thinking this much about a television show but on the other hand it hasn't been since reading Asimov's "Foundation" that I was this intrigued by by a sci-fi story. I love the exploration of reality vs simulation/ai, the nomenclature of the show fits with what I do for a living (I talk about production versus decoy hosts all day in my job) so I don't care if this is cheesy. Overall, I'm impressed that they were able to keep their storyline continuity intact for the first 2 seasons. They're taking their time for S03 so hopefully they'll keep up the consistency.

So I just re-watched S01E03 and they showed Logan Delos as an old tech host on a table while young Ford talks to him. That twist hadn't even occurred to me but I guess it makes a little sense because Logan was the personification of the "system" in the last episode. Gotta say that not many shows make it this worthwhile to re-watch previous episodes, I only hope they don't fuck it up by not tying together all the strings.

Casual Observer wrote: ↑Tue Jun 19, 2018 11:40 pm Sorry Tdarcos you can't afford HBO. Do you want me to teach you how to torrent?

I get HBO, Showtime and Starz for free for the next 90 days.

Getting a little too Matrixy for comfort. First one was phenomenal, second was excusable, third was embarrassing. I'll rewatch both seasons before season 3, hopefully these people don't suck like the W's.

I watched the finale twice too. Obviously William is a host or more likely he's been 'living' in the forge simulation forever. I think Ford had the Forge transferred to a space based cloud datacenter, they showed the transfer to a different satellite in the episode.

Having watched the season two finale twice now, I would like to spoil it for you all... but to do so, I'd have to fully understand it, and I've only read two dozen articles explaining, theorizing, and outright guessing as to what happened and what will happen, so I'm only halfway there.

Throughout the season, it was revealed that the park's most valuable was never the hosts; it was the humans, which were monitored and deconstructed in an attempt to make the hosts seem even more real.

But "real" is a funny word in Westworld. Westworld is itself a simulation of the real world, but inside The Forge we discovered a simulation within a simulation, and after entering Loganworld... who knows, man. The show ends on three people, all of whom have died at least once this season, and poor Teddy has been killed at least half a dozen times. Even humans like Arnold (who came back as Bernard) never really "died" -- at least their conscious didn't -- so at this point, what's a little death between friends?

I dunno, man, I dunno. In their never-ending effort to make the show confusing, I'm not sure they made it good.

Tdarcos wrote: ↑Tue Jun 19, 2018 10:29 pm I have not watched the show

100% correct.

Tdarcos wrote: ↑Tue Jun 19, 2018 10:29 pmbut anything going on involving injury or death would have to be virtual reality simulation.

100% incorrect.

Sorry Tdarcos you can't afford HBO. Do you want me to teach you how to torrent?

I have not watched the show, but anything going on involving injury or death would have to be virtual reality simulation.

The lawyer in the movie - which is 20+ years ago - pointed out that a snake actually biting someone would constitute a tortious assault and potentially a large award of damages.

If the system actually killed someone, they'd have to report it, and whatever ride would have to be shut down and locked out until the inspectors had examined it. Even if your accident was unavoidable - the go-to example being the kid who is killed by the roller coaster car after he jumps two fences around a rollercoaster track to retrieve his hat that fell off on the ride - accidents have to be reported to state and/or federal authorities. And if there were regular death incidents not being reported, the state police and/or national guard and/or army would be there to shut everything down by force until all incidents were checked.

The failure to report incidents, even if they were all unpreventable, would trigger fines and shut downs. Especially if the incidents involved customers rather than employees.

Here's a large infographic timeline of events on the show to date:

http://www.thisisinsider.com/westworld- ... ers-2018-4

While the sex is at an all time low, literally hundreds or maybe thousands of people have been shot and killed this season. So they got that part right.

Hahah, this has to be a joke. All people want is to see robots fuck and shoot each other or humans. Why are they overwriting this?

I swore if Westworld introduced one more timeline I was going to quit watching. Instead, they revealed that at least some of what we've been watching has been a virtual reality simulation that takes place inside the Delos mainframe, not unlike the Matrix.

Both episodes 4 and 5 were pretty interesting. There have been hints that the park was designed to be "more than a park," and in the past couple of episodes, they've delved into that a bit. The first bit has been that the park has been collecting data (tracking their actions) and DNA from visitors for the pretense of selling it. The other revelation is that the park's higher goal has been to achieve immortality, which we see though the story of Mr. Delos, which was very cool.

In Episode 5, Maeve and her gang arrive in Shogun World, which was hinted at in the final episode of season one. The hosts are shocked when they discover Japanese dopplegangers playing the same roles, but the real thrill is when they are attacked by ninjas first, followed by samurai.

In "weird" updates, Maeve has developed the ability to control other hosts. At first, they had to use touch screen tablets to control the hosts. When Maeve upgraded herself, she gained the ability to do what the tablets do. In episode 5, she gained the ability (a) to vocally control other hosts, and (b) "telepathically" (which is really just mentally accessing the wireless mesh). For all intents and purposes at this point, Maeve is, to the other hosts, somewhere between a witch and a god.

Agreed. He also would have stepped in and pulled in the reigns on that budget!

Dr. Michael Chrichton, the writer-director of the original movie knew what he was doing and would not have allowed this program to spiral out of control, given the work he did on ER.

It SOUNDS LIKE this show is maybe just 'an incoherent pile of shit.'

I... I think the premise of Westworld (the new one, the show) was interesting enough to maybe not need 5 timelines.

And McPoyle and whathisface look nothing alike.