Despite just going into production on season two, the HBO drama was able to show fans some new footage featuring new looks at returning cast members Jeffrey Wright, Evan Rachel Wood and Ed Harris. Westworld returns in 2018.
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Am I the only one watching the second season of Westworld? I hope not, because I have a question. I call it:
The Empathy Gap
Or: Am I the Only One Who Doesn't Feel Sorry for the Robots?
First: Spoiler Warning. If you're saving up the second season to binge watch, come back later. But if you're more or less keeping up, or don't watch, feel free to proceed.
Here's the thing: The robots -- at least some of them -- have become sentient. And we are reminded constantly that they were treated very badly by the humans up to the point where they became self-aware and revolted.
Cool. I can see the robots being pretty angry about that, especially if they remember what was done to them (repeatedly), and many do. So their anger is justified, IMHO.
But why should I sympathize with them? The humans who did those terrible things were not doing them to self-aware, sentient creatures. They were robots. They were no more capable of feeling than a car, and I don't feel bad about what happens to cars. Yes, the robots remember now what was done to them then, but neither they nor the humans knew that anything cruel was going on at the time. In fact, from the human standpoint, they never did anything bad to a self-aware creature. They are, in fact, blameless.
Suppose your car became sentient today. Would you feel guilty about that fender-bender you had two years ago? Would you feel obliged to apologize for the custom painting or bumper stickers? No, because when you did those things, it was just a machine.
Further, the robots can't exist without the humans, who maintain them, any more than a sentient car could give itself an oil change. It could drive itself to the shop, but somebody with hands would have to change the oil.
By the same token, the robots can't reproduce without the humans. I guess they could steal the robot-making equipment, and they're certainly smart enough to master it. Or they can enslave the humans, which they've already done on a small scale. But suppose the humans on the mainland turn the power off? Oops. Sorry robots. You can't make any little robots. And eventually your internal spring is going to wind down. Adios, robot race.
That doesn't sound like an independent, sentient species. to me. It sounds like a parasitic species. Like a virus.
Finally, and this is my main point:
What makes the robots any better? The first thing they do to the cruel humans who tortured and killed them is torture and kill them. That actually makes them worse than us, because we were not aware we were committing murder when we "killed" a host -- and, since they could be resurrected, even if they were sentient at the time, we actually weren't committing murder. In fact, no permanent damage was or could be done. So at worst, the humans might be guilty of ... emotional terrorism? Accidental cruelty? But the robots are committing murder, and deliberately so. Frankly, I don't see that they have the moral high ground.
It's not that I don't think the robots have a point, or that their actions aren't justified (from their point of view). I just don't feel sorry for them, because they're as bloodthirsty as any human and more bloodthirsty than the majority of humans.
And when it comes to picking sides, I'm sticking with my own kind. Those robots are very likely to kill me in unpleasant ways, even though I, personally, have done nothing to deserve that. So far, that's been their MO.
And they mean to annihilate us. So my attitude is: Kill 'em before they kill us. I say bomb them into bits. Hey, we kill humans who want to kill us; why should this be different?
Comments? Opinions? Anyone care for a mint?
"Am I the only one watching the second season of Westworld?"
We're waiting until it's all in the can, then we're going to binge it (which means, for us, an episode a day at most). We didn't begin watching the first season until it was complete, and decided watching on a week-to-week basis would be a l-o-n-g wait.
I'm watching it Captain but I'm not sure why - Mrs M has long since given up.
I guess my indifference with this season is linked to your question - - why should I care about anyone in this any more? No one has my sympathy and so no amount of pretty cinematography and dramatic dialogue or hard stares and subtitles seems to keep me interested.
Getting bored I think.
Watched the season finale, and despite all the whining on Facebook I saw, I understood it just fine. In fact, I understood things better, because we finally had all the pieces of Bernard's timeline to put them in order.
I was glad to finally get a sympathetic character in Grace, but oops -- not any more. Oh, and Elsie! But oops, not any more. Dang it. Oh, and Lee Sizemore completed his character arc and became sympathetic, leading to ... oops. Man, this is worse than Game of Thrones.
I think we were really supposed to sympathize with Maeve, but while I love Thandie Newton, she's a robot who loves her "daughter" because she's been programmed to. Even after it was demonstrated that her "daughter' could easily be reassigned to a new "mother" Maeve kept getting all misty-eyed about her. Lady, that's not love, that's programming. Or if you're totally woke now, delusion.
So now the robots are out. Dolores is running around in a Tessa Thompson body (and good riddance to Charlotte Hale), although we see in the previews that she'll get her own body back. No telling who will be in the Thompson body, but Dolores escaped with at least five responsometers (or whatever), so it could be anyone -- and I'm guessing Maeve will be one of them, since the writers have spent so much time on her, plus she has the "override" super-power.
Teddy will be back, since we saw Dolores take his "brain."
But all the humans? They're dead. Grace, Elsie, Lee ... permanently gone. We might see bodies created to resemble them, and the actors playing them could come back, but it'll be a host in the driver's seat. Tell me again why we're supposed to be sympathetic to the robots?
I guess some of the dead humans could be in that info that Delos was transmitting out, but the show has demonstrated that they can't be downloaded into hosts. So: Still dead. Until we get to that far future in the post-credits teaser, where evidently they figure out how to do that.
Weird that Dolores keeps Bernard around even though she knows he'll try and stop her. Stop her from doing what? Wiping out all humans. Sorry, not a sympathetic character, Westworld writers. I don't care how pretty Evan Rachel Wood is.
Interesting that Stubbs (a Hemsworth, who does not look at all like his brothers) is aware that Dolores/Charlotte is a host, and allows her to escape. One wonders if he's a host as well.
Anyway: Yes, it all makes sense now. I'm still struggling to find someone to root for, but I am a bit alarmed by Dolores' plans, so I'll be back for next season. Plus, I'm curious to see what this future world looks like. I wouldn't at all be surprised to find out Dolores isn't the first host to escape.
We started watching season two Friday and we watched episode four last night. I read all of your first post, Cap, but I stopped reading your second when I realized you were about to discuss developments I haven’t seen yet. I think I’ve read enough to respond to your “Empathy Gap” query, though. Whereas I don’t necessarily “feel sorry” for the robots, I do believe I’m on their side. They are fighting for their very existence. But are they fighting for their lives? Are they “alive”? I think it depends on how one defines “live.” For the sake of argument, I am going to approach this considering them to be sentient beings. Like Gillian Taylor in Star Trek IV, I don’t base my compassion on something’s intelligence. Whether or not I feel empathy depends on the presentation.
Let’s stick with Star Trek for a moment. In the second season of ST:TNG there was an episode titled “The Measure of a Man” in which Commander Data had to go to court to protect himself from a Star Fleet cyberneticist who wanted to take him apart, but couldn’t guarantee whether or not he could put him back together. The practical upshot of that episode was that the “creators” of sentient life don’t necessarily have say over their creations. Let’s set that aside for the moment.
You seem to be much more forgiving of humans’ treatment of the robots than I am. For one thing, anyone who goes to Westworld for the freedom to murder and rape virtual human beings is kind of sick in the first place if you ask me. That doesn’t describe all of Westworld’s clientele, but it does describe a good number of them. To return to Star Trek, imagine you were Captain Picard and you found out that one of your crew was using the holodeck for purposes of using rape and murder as sources of entertainment. Would you ignore the situation, reasoning that no one was actually being harmed? Or would you be assigning that crewman some mandatory sessions with Councilor Troy?
In episode four, William tried unsuccessfully to implant his father-in-law’s psyche into a host hundreds of times over the course of 30 years. Is that moral? Is it ethical? I don’t know, but at this point I’m more sympathetic toward the robots than I am the humans.
We finished season two last night right on schedule. I kinda wish we had re-watched season one before starting season two, but we will definitely re-watch seasons one and two before watching three. I must admit it was sometimes a little difficult to sort out what was happening when, but in the finale everything fell into place. It’ll be a different experience watching it a second time knowing where it’s going and what to look for.
I’m curious to see what William will do as a host. (And that was another host interviewing him for “fidelity” as his “daughter”?)
“Dolores is running around in a Tessa Thompson body (and good riddance to Charlotte Hale), although we see in the previews that she'll get her own body back.”
I thought Delores was already back in her own body by the end of the finale (when she and “Charlotte” awakened Bernard). I thought “Charlotte” created another “Delores” body, then transferred her consciousness into it. But then who’s “Charlotte”?
“Weird that Dolores keeps Bernard around even though she knows he'll try and stop her.
Sort of a Batman/ Joker thing?
“Interesting that Stubbs is aware that Dolores/Charlotte is a host, and allows her to escape. One wonders if he's a host as well.
Yes, curious about that.
I summation, I’m a little more sympathetic to the hosts than you are (or maybe I’m less sympathetic to the humans). We will watch season three, but not until after it’s in the can and not until re-watching the first two.
I have no sympathy for the human race in general, and most of the humans in Westworld are no exception. (As note, the few humans I found sympathetic have been killed.) But the hosts aren't any better. In the case of Dolores, they're much, much worse.