What big ball? From Rehoboam/Incite she only got a handful of files. What she took from Delos, after Serac’s takeover became inevitable, were all the blueprints on how to make hosts (e.g., machinery to make those pearl cores) and related research. Doesn’t seem like it would be that big. The “big data”, namely the encrypted world containing all the hosts that made it there, and also copies of the minds of every guest to the park, was already transferred by Dolores in Season 2 to some server via high-bandwidth laser satellite uplink. (The hosts, at least; maybe she uploaded the guests only locally to herself when she was hooked up to the Forge mainframe- I’m too lazy to re-watch the episode.) Serac also has an encrypted copy of the guest minds that Charlotte managed to smuggle out for him, but not the key.
Right. I wonder what some of these critics are comparing this show to, tbh. Westword, Seasons 1 & 2, were not The Sopranos or Breaking Bad. The show has always had plot holes you could drive a truck through. But it was fun sci-fi which was pretty and had an interesting idea behind it. Season 1 was over convoluted for the twist. Season 2 was a muddled mess (but still fun).
I don’t see anything in Season 3 which is all that different in terms of quality. The setting is different. The critics are still rating the show similarly (RT rankings by season: 87%, 86%, 84%).
I’m enjoying it myself. I enjoy sci-fi stories of people creating all encompassing AIs to try to control things in order to deal with chaos. Added to the overarching sci-fi theme of when does a robot become ‘human’. And it’s still pretty to look at (though I wish HBO would start streaming things in 4k HDR).
I’m enjoying this season more than the previous, not as much as the first.
I like the aesthetic, I’m a sucker for any near-future setting that isn’t all dark and grimy and close. Especially ones with wide-open spaces. I automatically give any such work a thumb on the scales. It’s the reason I unironically enjoyed the Æon Flux movie.
Could do with more Bernard, though.
[quote=“Alessan, post:254, topic:835565”]
He also kills people because it’s slightly more convenient than not killing them. Like that board member, or the Chinese guy he had tied to a chair a few episodes again. He could have figured out a way to get what he wanted without murdering them - after all, he *is *a genius with a godlike ASI at his disposal. But that would involve caring, and killing them was easier.
…/QUOTE]
Yeah, he killed like two people, whereas Dolores has killed hundreds or thousands?
dup
Westworld has been renewed for Season 4:
I said the jury was still out on Dolores - I still haven’t forgiven her for killing that helpful tech on the train last season. She didn’t have to do that. Still, she is a machine. Empathy is new to her. Let’s see if she evolves.
That said, whether or not Dolores is a bad person has nothing to do with the fact that Serac is definitely a bad person. I want to see him lose; I haven’t decided yet if I want to see her win.
I’m assuming he has decided on the deaths of many more than Dolores, but that’s just an assumption.
Regardless this isn’t the presidential campaign* and the lesser of evils needn’t be the good guy ;). Whether Serac or Dolores is actually the anti-hero of this story( or they’re both just different types of villain and it is all Maeve )seems uncertain to me at this point. But IMHO so far Serac meets most every criterion for a super-villain. Of course he’s the hero in his own story - every villain is.
ETA: Or what Alessan just said :).
- Serac vs. Dolores for president - now wouldn’t that be an interesting campaign. Though I imagine the secret service would take a beating.
I know, I know, a end to war, and nuking cities and a end to world hunger- that is *super duper Evil. *:rolleyes:
Serac doesn’t actually care about people, so even if - *IF *- he’s actually stopping war and hunger today, maybe tomorrow he’ll decide to kill off a country or race that annoys him, or decide that humanity isn’t worth saving and kill everyone. Nobody should have so much power, especially not a moral monster like Serac.
Besides, there are some things worse than war. Slavery, for instance. Or dictatorships. If Serac is the de facto king of the world, then who the fuck elected him?
Many an evil man had lofty goals. Goals aren’t evil - how you get there is.
Like blowing up kids, that sort of thing…
But did Serac blow up Charlotte’s ex and kid, or did Dolores do that, to eliminate the distractions that were fogging up Charlores’ mind, keeping her from her purpose (serving Dolores)?
We’ll see next week, but I’m pretty sure I recognized Beardy Guy as being one of Serac’s.
Also, I don’t see how ExtraCrispy Charlores serves any purpose of Dolores.
Heh he. Just realised “Char-lores” works on two levels now…
That Dolores may end up winning, what with the charly sheen.
Just saw the latest episode, and wasn’t wowed, all in all.
Made no sense to have Maeve killing all those SS troopers in hand-to-hand combat.
I liked seeing William in group therapy - with others, and later with himself (did you notice that both of his hands were normal in the latter scene?). That is one messed-up dude. I have to guess other medical staff have been bitten by patients involuntarily getting those roof-of-the-mouth implants - you’d think they’d take precautions.
Did you notice the man spray-painting a maze in the alley in San Francisco? Nice S1 callback.
If Serac was suspicious of Charlotte, why not track her movements and trap her in a Delos elevator when she started her killing spree? Why not fool her into thinking she’d downloaded the data, but actually have it go into a Serac-controlled server (or nowhere at all)? Why not lock her out of the host-creation lab? Adios, poor Hector.
I guess that was Chekhov’s, er, Charlotte’s giant red riot-control robot. Saw it before, saw it again. But why would the guards be willing to let her mess around her with her phone, knowing how dangerous she was? And again, implausibly terrible marksmanship by the mooks. Feh.
Now Charlotte is badly burned and hairless, and has lost the ex and the kid she’d begun to care for. I’ll be interested to see what she does next.
Thanks, IS!
Serac and Dolores both have some of the characteristics of a supervillain, and neither is all “white hat” or all “black hat.” But Serac is, bottom line, committed to a peaceful future for humanity, so with a lot of reservations (and well-deserved criticism of his methods), I think he’s the “good guy” - or, at least, not as much of a “bad guy” as Dolores. Given the moral shades of gray on this show, and the battle-lines now so bloodily drawn between humanity and robots, that’s probably about the best we can expect.
Two more episodes to go this season.
Serac is very much a supervillain - specifically, a Marvel supervillain: like Hydra, killing off the troublemakers to create a safe and orderly world, or Thanos, killing half the universe so that the other universe can thrive. A peaceful future for humanity is probably the no. 1 motivation of leading superheros.
Also, if Serac were really interested in security rather than control, he’d have Jeroboam do nothing except spit out the Social Security numbers of people who will be involved in crimes in the future (sorry to keep riffing on the subject, but as the season progresses it’s becoming harder and harder for me not to see the show as Nolan’s mirror universe follow-up to PoI).
[Duplicate post]
I agree. There’s a lot of overlap. (And of course a lot of overlap between Nolan’s Person of Interest and Philip K. Dick’s story “The Minority Report”).
So, why is he the villain? Because he is a french dude needing a shave, whereas his opponent is a beautiful anglo blond? Dolores kills humans- lots and lots and lots of them, and just killed many more thru her chaos.
Serac wants to save humanity from being nuked again.
Apparently some minor lawlessness and crime is good for the world.