Westworld analysis on Subtext

analysis
#1

@jhull speaking of Westworld I was wondering if you plan to describe the storyform you found at some point? (podcast!) Last year I tried and got all the same Concerns as you, with Dolores as the Change MC, but I had the OS in State of Being (I really liked Inertia as the OS Symptom with all the androids in their “loops”). I thought maybe Dolores changed from Knowledge to Thought, with her understanding that the voice in her head was her own thoughts – that she can think.

Not saying I’m right at all – I can definitely see Sense of Self and Desire/Ability (i.e. the ability to think for oneself) for sure, and it’s been a while since I watched – but just hoping you plan to illuminate us further. :slight_smile:

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#2

For sure. I went through all the Static Plot Points for the first season in the podcast I recorded yesterday - but I’m about seven weeks behind editing them and publishing them! (Because of Subtext update). My focus now is catching up on editing these guys and putting them out there.

Quickly though - is everyone’s problem Knowledge, or does Desire somehow fit the bill better? Think about the entire park itself - all the guests, all the hosts - the guests have their Desires, the hosts have theirs - and that’s really the problem at the center of it all - that you have this “pleasure” park that is severely out of balance.

I see what you’re saying about loops - but the loops would just keep things going - it’s the desires, the motivations for something more, that actually drives them to break free of the loops and to question the nature of their reality - which is really more about their sense of themselves rather than who they really are.

Plus, the Influence Character Problem of Self-Aware for Bernard is a slam-dunk…(and a HUGE source of motivation for the second season)

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#3

I’ve been meaning to ask about this too – can’t wait to listen to the podcast.

Is there only one storyform that you’re covering for the first season? Is the Maeve throughline a substory?

I’m very interested in a structure like this where you have OS protagonist and antagonists who are neither main nor influence characters. So quite a bit happens in the OS. Seems like it opens up a lot of possibilities.

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Westworld Story breakdown anyone?
#4

It’s insane. I really hadn’t planned on going over the Static Plot Points because I don’t use them that much in writing and developing feature film screenplays. But when it comes to a television series - going through them I found evidence of them throughout! Really interesting…

Maeve definitely is substory, not sure exactly the specifics. Was going to go through the first season again - the storyform you see there now, that was from only watching the first 15 min of first episode. Everything fell into place, and then I got caught up with other things, so yes need to go back over it and see where she fits in.

Oh - and YES! I love it as an example of Protagonist/Antagonist split off from Main Character and Influence Character. Ford is 100% pursuing a Goal of Conceptualizing (his new narrative) and the Man in Black is 100% trying to Understand (Consequence) what it all means.

Amazing show.

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#5

:bulb: Oh yeah I can totally see that. Desire is huge in that story. And Sense of Self becomes more and more apparent the further into the season (I made the mistake of thinking about the storyform after only a few episodes).

Plus I can see how well Speculation works as a Focus instead of Inertia – there is a lot of guessing going on. Even with the loops it was really that speculation that they kept focusing on.

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