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[Zoe]

Only thing in the show that bugs me now is Black hat William. What was driving all his choices early in the season. They really didn't show why scalping the dude in the beginning was important

I would let that one go--the actor died.

 

[slightconfuse]

Elsie (and Stubbs too) isn't dead. Rule #1 of television: if you don't see a character die on screen, then they are never truly dead.

They'll both be back.

Yea maybe Ford wanted to protect them from the massacre

 

[LumpOfCole]

Ford probably made a host of himself, but it'll be his way younger self as portrayed by the Arnold-days Dolores flashback. That's a tidy way of getting out of paying that Hopkins salary to keep Ford around.

 

[Shy Fingers]

Pretty that was just CG

Damn... Guess I didn't really look close enough

 

[Jack Scofield]

Having the host uprising be a plan of Ford's retroactively makes the rest of Maeve's storyline a bit more believable. So I have to give them credit for that. But William's transformation into the Man in Black came way too late in the season to feel natural. It's almost like the writers realized at the last second they only had two episodes to make the connection between characters.

 

[Solo]

Ford probably made a host of himself, but it'll be his way younger self as portrayed by the Arnold-days Dolores flashback. That's a tidy way of getting out of paying that Hopkins salary to keep Ford around.

It would cost a lot more for CG Ford all season than for Hopkins, I'd think.

 

[ZOONAMI]

Ford probably made a host of himself, but it'll be his way younger self as portrayed by the Arnold-days Dolores flashback. That's a tidy way of getting out of paying that Hopkins salary to keep Ford around.

It would cost a lot more for CG Ford all season than for Hopkins, I'd think.

They made an actual AH host irl to replace AH.

 

[shira]

Ford probably made a host of himself, but it'll be his way younger self as portrayed by the Arnold-days Dolores flashback. That's a tidy way of getting out of paying that Hopkins salary to keep Ford around.

Was that an actor, half CG Tron face manipulation or full CG?

 

[FStop7]

Was that an actor, half CG Tron face manipulation or full CG?

I think it was an actor with a processed version of Hopkins' voice dubbed in.

 

[Solo]

Was that an actor, half CG Tron face manipulation or full CG?

Just his face CGed onto another actor.

 

[Meier]

That was clearly just some CG when they showed the "younger" version of Ford. It was effective but very obvious.

 

[Snakethesniper]

I'm absolutely stupid, but I need someone to explain to me the arnold plan of getting himself killed (a host killed a human and every other host so we can't open the park?), and what was ford plan. The center of the maze. This stuff

 

[LumpOfCole]

The just have to cast a Ford that looks like CG Ford. Any imperfections can be explained by Ford making manual adjustments to the Host. It might seem like a Star Trek Nemesis explanation but I can very much see it happening, especially as Ford basically made a matching family set to go with a younger Ford host already.

 

[bounchfx]

But William's transformation into the Man in Black came way too late in the season to feel natural. It's almost like the writers realized at the last second they only had two episodes to make the connection between characters.

Or they just wanted to save the 'reveal' for the last episode to shine light on it for all the dense people who might have not figured it out yet

 

[HolySheep]

we still dont know who(assuming its based of a human) ford was creating in the scene where theresa gets killed. Might just be a Ford-copy.

Mulitple worlds confirmed btw? The samurai bit and the note where it says "park 1". Meaning there might be other parks?

 

[Solo]

Mulitple worlds confirmed btw? The samurai bit and the note where it says "park 1". Meaning there might be other parks?

I think that's been confirmed for some time now.

 

[forgeforsaken]

Samurai World is a bit of a internal consistency problem for them. In an early WW episode they talked about how bladed weapons were seriously restricted to specific hosts. Also, they have their magic guns in WW but do they have magic bows and arrows that only hurt hosts?

 

[duckroll]

good finale but me too tired to think, nodded off a few times at the end, bad idea to watch at 12am. zzzzzzzzzzzz.

nolan direction skills +10 upgrade

 

[Ensirius]

This is the best show I have ever seen on TV. EVER.
What a masterpiece from beggining to end.
The performances, the story, the pace... Abnsolutely everything about it was BRILLIANT.
I cannot fucking wait for season 2.

I don't care if it's the right format, Hopkins deserves an Academy award for this performance.

Absolutely agree.

 

[Solo]

Ratsky/Cornballer, anything on ratings yet?

 

[Platy]

Awesome season finale ... way less cliffhangery than I expected

I KNEW that the end of the maze would lead to a new park !
...just not in the way I think =P

It take balls to do what they did to Anthony Hopkins ! ... but then again this is the type of series that have a plan b to everything xD

 

[Zoe]

Just his face CGed onto another actor.

I think it was CG'ed for the Ford from episode 3(?), but episode 9/10 Ford could have been a double. The effect didn't look as good as the other two periods.

 

[Cornballer]

Ratsky/Cornballer, anything on ratings yet?

First we'd hear anything would probably be tomorrow unless HBO wants to put out a press release this afternoon.

 

[Sickboy007]

They also have the option to bring back Ford in his middle aged days, when he first booted up Bernard. They could explore how he laid up his plan.

That should be cheaper too, some light CG + make-up.

I hope they'll do what's best for the story, anyway.

 

[ZOONAMI]

Samurai World is a bit of a internal consistency problem for them. In an early WW episode they talked about how bladed weapons were seriously restricted to specific hosts. Also, they have their magic guns in WW but do they have magic bows and arrows that only hurt hosts?

Yeah, strange choice. I suppose you can have dull swords that can only cut the hosts through programming?

But you need a sharp axe to actually cut wood, so thus lots of protection around an axe.

Arrows are tricky too but arrows are also in WW. I think there most be programming to never fire an arrow at a guest, but that doesn't completely eliminate the possibility of an accident. Maybe a guest proximity sensor on an arrow that will slow it velocity to a halt immediately and maybe the top can morph into something not pointed.

 

[Solo]

HBO is going to make us wait until next December for the Bluray, aren't they?

 

[Struct09]

That was a really great way to cap off the season and provide some more context to all the previous episodes. I'm hoping they can smooth out the rough edges for the next season.

 

[Rimon-hanit]

I was definitely wrong about this series, those last 4 episode have been the most engaging t.v episodes.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

So would you guys consider William to be a villain still (assuming you were one of the people who saw him as one)?

Overall is is hard to identify antagonists when the goals of the good guys and of the bad ones were aligned. Only the administrative board were entirely against the hosts interests (assuming we chose the hosts as the protagonists), then again they were not more manipulative dicks about it than Ford. William is a monster, but he does not want the hosts to fail. Ford, even was killing innocent people, but you couldn't help but root for him too since every other alternative would be boring without discovering what the end game was, which is what viewers were in for.

 

[Cornballer]

Content roundup. Much of this has probably already been posted, but I don't have time to wade through ~1000 posts since last night. I'll continue to update this list with new posts as more content appears.

Reviews:
- Sepinwall
- Onion A|V Club
- Vanity Fair
- Rolling Stone
- The Guardian
- YahooTV
- Variety
- MTV
- Paste Magazine
- Salon
- The Wrap
- The Ringer
- EW
- THR
- Vox
- Washington Post

Other articles:
- EW: Westworld finale: 10 unanswered questions
- NY Mag: Our Biggest Questions After the Westworld Finale
- NY Mag: Why Westworld Is Such an Unlikely Success Story for HBO

Interviews:
- EW with Ed Harris
- Vanity Fair with Jimmi Simpson
- IGN on the post-episode video with Jonathan Nolan
- GQ with Jimmi Simpson

More reviews:
- Time
- Esquire
- Film School Rejects
- IndieWire
- Warming Glow
- Slate: The Westworld Finale Highlighted the Problem With This Show’s Twist Addiction

GIF:

 

[Solo]

GIF:

And there it is. Glorious.

Will also make for a reaction GIF that will get a lot of mileage.

 

[Back-In-Black]

Overall is is hard to identify antagonists when the goals of the good guys and of the bad ones were aligned. Only the administrative board were entirely against the hosts interests (assuming we chose the hosts as the protagonists), then again they were not more manipulative dicks about it than Ford. William is a monster, but he does not want the hosts to fail. Ford, even was killing innocent people, but you couldn't help but root for him too since every other alternative would be boring without discovering what the end game was, which is what viewers were in for.

Is he? Besides whatever he did to Logan he was just screwing around with machines. A bit fucked but at the end of the day they were just machines with no consciousness or true feelings, at least at the time. It's like being called a "monster" because you play as Trevor in GTAV and spend all day mowing down civilians.

 

[carlsojo]

The shootout through the offices seemed really familiar to me for some reason...

Outlaw male = John Reese
Outlaw female = Sameen Shaw
Maeve = Root
Felix = Harold Finch

 

[Garrett 2U]

I'm absolutely stupid, but I need someone to explain to me the arnold plan of getting himself killed (a host killed a human and every other host so we can't open the park?), and what was ford plan. The center of the maze. This stuff

Arnold's goal was to achieve consciousness in the hosts. His original theory of consciousness was a pyramid where the hosts became progressively more aware.

After his son died, while playing with his son's toy, he realized that consciousness wasn't a pyramid, but more like a maze. Any choice the hosts make could bring them closer to realizing their own voice, or reset them and bring them back to the start, prolonging their suffering. The center of the maze symbolizes the hosts achieving consciousness.

Arnold knew the hosts were becoming sentinent and couldn't rationalize subjecting them to a torturous life of servitude in Westworld, as Ford remained unconvinced.
So Arnold devised a scheme to make the hosts seem unsafe and stop the opening of the park. He made it seem like Dolores and Teddy went crazy, murdering all the hosts, Arnold, and themselves.

Ford was overwhelmed with grief over the loss of his partner and his responsibility for it. He covered up the whole incident and went on to open the park. Through his loss of Arnold, he was able to see the park through Arnold's eyes and realized what the hosts could become. So he continued Arnold's research and completed the reveries update which allowed the maze-like evolution of the hosts consciousness.

 

[Plesiades]

Nolan should contact Michael Emerson for next season.

 

[Back-In-Black]

Also, was anyone else getting Mass Effect vibes with the score, especially in this last episode?

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

Is he? Besides whatever he did to Logan he was just screwing around with machines. A bit fucked but at the end of the day they were just machines with no consciousness or true feelings, at least at the time. It's like being called a "monster" because you play as Trevor in GTAV and spend all day mowing down civilians.

There is truth in this, but I'm more or less assuming that the hosts are the protagonists, so I mean it more in a Boogeyman sort of way.

 

[Mega]

Samurai World is a bit of a internal consistency problem for them. In an early WW episode they talked about how bladed weapons were seriously restricted to specific hosts. Also, they have their magic guns in WW but do they have magic bows and arrows that only hurt hosts?

I mentioned before that Samurai World isn't analogous to West World, if you take West to mean a time and place in American history. Samurai World is cheesy and also oddly specific when not everyone at that time was a samurai... very few people were. This may be a stretch, but I do think Sengoku World makes a lot more sense. There are guns in this period of Japanese history.

The Sengoku period (戦国時代 Sengoku jidai?, lit. Age of Civil War; c. 1467 – c. 1603) is a period in Japanese history marked by social upheaval, political intrigue and near-constant military conflict.

On the development and subsequent proliferation of guns during that time:

Japan was at war during the Sengoku Period between 1467 and 1590, as feudal lords vied for supremacy.[7] Matchlock guns were used extensively and had a decisive role in warfare. In 1549, Oda Nobunaga ordered 500 matchlocks to be made for his armies. The benefits of firearms were still relatively questionable however compared to other weapons. At the time, guns were still rather primitive and cumbersome. According to one estimate in 16th century Japan, an archer could fire 15 arrows in the time a gunner would take to load, charge, and shoot a firearm.[8] Effective range also was only 80 to 100 meters, and at that distance, a bullet could easily bounce off armour. Furthermore, matchlocks were vulnerable to humid or rainy conditions as the powder would become damp.[8] However, firearms could be manned effectively by farmers or non-samurai low-ranking soldiers.[9]

The Japanese soon worked on various techniques to improve the effectiveness of their guns. They developed serial firing technique to create a continuous rain of bullets on the enemy.[10] They also developed bigger calibers to increase lethal power.[10] Protective boxes in lacquerware were invented to be able to fire matchlocks in the rain,[11] as well as systems to accurately fire weapons at night by keeping fixed angles thanks to measured strings.[12]

As a result, in the year 1567, Takeda Shingen announced that "Hereafter, the guns will be the most important arms. Therefore, decrease the number of spears per unit, and have your most capable men carry guns".[13] At the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, 3,000 arquebusiers helped win the battle, firing by volleys of 1,000 at a time, and concealed across a river and breastwork to effectively stop enemy infantry and cavalry charges while being protected.[14]

Japan became so enthusiastic about the new weapons that it possibly overtook every European country in absolute numbers produced.[9] Japan also used the guns in the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592, in which about a quarter of the invasion force of 160,000 were gunners.[15] They were extremely successful at first and managed to capture Seoul just 18 days after their landing at Pusan

So I would say this new park could take place around 1600 and still have firearms.

 

[FStop7]

MIB William's explanations didn't strike me as being particularly sincere. They're contradictory to his actions in some ways. His daughter was right about the darkness in him. He just wants an excuse to create chaos in the park because that's who he really is. He doesn't care about the sentience of the hosts, etc. He only cares about his own desires.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Yup and Fords plan was to give them time to achieve arnolds goal by subjecting them to the suffering of westworld over time

Once he knew they were ready he set himself up for his own sacrifice

 

[Mega]

I take it that Jimmi Simpson is done with the show then?

We don't know the full story of what happened between William and Logan after this first trip into Westworld and how William came to run shit. Even if we have an idea I think it's worth exploring in detail.

 

[FStop7]

We don't know the full story of what happened between William and Logan after this first trip into Westworld and how William came to run shit. Even if we have an idea I think it's worth exploring in detail.

He said he's done.

 

[Solo]

Jimmi is gone but you know damn well Logan + 30 years is going to show up at some point.

 

[SArcher]

Listening to season 1 soundtrack right now. So good.

 

[fallengorn]

Nolan should contact Michael Emerson for next season.

"We're the good guys, William."

 

[Corpekata]

We don't know the full story of what happened between William and Logan after this first trip into Westworld and how William came to run shit. Even if we have an idea I think it's worth exploring in detail.

These both don't strike me as stories they even want to tell, or at least, not for a series regular role.

His arc is done (as young William). William is a pathetic character (in a good way), he doesn't need anymore elaboration, and the machinations that lead to him owning the place seem pretty quaint compared to the story the finale is setting up.

 

[Theorry]

The next year and a half-long wait is gonna be bruuutal.

We have The Leftovers soon tho. So the mind fuckery continuous soon.

 

[kris.]

We have The Leftovers soon tho. So the mind fuckery continuous soon.

I still haven't seen that yet. I take it that it's worth a watch?

 

[Jack Scofield]

Hey, I was kind of right in my earlier prediction that the maze would make guests vulnerable to hosts.

 

[Plesiades]

If we only had Fincher's UTOPIA right now...