Post by Melifeather on Jun 11, 2018 16:43:46 GMT
Last week I detailed my thoughts regarding the imagery of the Vitruvian Man, and how I believe Ford, William, and Arnold/Bernard are echoing da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. In the opening sequence of every episode of season 2, Vitruvian Man becomes the Vitruvian woman, and then repeated images of a mother and child - The Madonna. One of Raphael’s most notable works is his great series of Madonnas, and last nights episode, Kiksuya emphasized the bond between a mother and her child and the power of love, as told through the narrative of a Lakota Ghost Nation warrior named Akecheta, or Ake for short.
Kiksuya, at first glance looked Japanese to me, but it’s actually a Lakota word pronounced “kiksúyA”. It means, “to remember, recall, recollect, or call to mind”. In this episode we witness Ake’s awakening, his ability to recall his past lives, and his desire to reconnect to his original life with Kohana. I have to admit his story had me weeping many times throughout the episode. It was beautifully told, and I forgot that Akecheta was a robot.
Through Ake we learn how he came to find the maze in a tavern after coming upon the aftermath of Arnold’s shooting by “the deathbringer”, Dolores. The maze seemed to awaken something deep inside his programming and he gets fixated by the maze, drawing it everywhere, and annoying his fellow warriors. But, before he can figure it out he’s taken away to be updated for a new narrative and he comes back “breathing fire”. The next time we see him about to get an upgrade, the techs comment that he hasn’t been updated in 10 years. The ramifications being that we now know how long ago Arnold was killed. The techs also referred to Ake as an “alpha”, which must refer to the level of his operating system, and how bots that “aren’t supposed to die” in their narrative are not updated, thus also “alpha”. This seems like an important detail we should remember. One other detail that stood out was that the maze at the bar was left with a shot of whiskey. Was the whiskey purposely left for the Man in Black to find? I don’t know if you’re familiar with the original Westworld movie from the 70’s, but in that version the Man in Black is actually a host.
Even though Ake is now one of the Ghost Nation warriors “breathing fire”, he continues to obsess about the maze. Then one day he finds Logan, naked and sunsick - or maybe over-dosing - and Logan’s words about the world being an illusion, that there is another world, and there should we a way out, helps further Ake’s understanding. Logan just wants out of the park, but it causes Ake to set out to look for this door - which he finds - but when he goes back with Kohana, the door was gone. A new landscape had been completed and the door concealed.
Ake talks to a village elder who’s son has been “replaced”. The elder gave Ake valuable information about “them” - the people “below” ground, and Ake finally realizes that he has to “die” to find Kohana. What is notable about the scene is the elder, who is also a mother - one of Raphael’s - er, Arnold’s Madonnas. Ake referred to Arnold as “the creator”, and while Ford knew about the maze, he seemed confused that Ake was still trying to follow it. I believe our take away is to conclude that the creator of the maze was Arnold.
One significant feature of Raphael’s Madonna compositions that set him apart from other Madonna painters, are that Raphael’s mother and child compositions form a seamless unit - the figures are tied by interlocking gestures and unified by shared gazes. I suspect that we can expect the same interlocked-unification between the parental units that Arnold created.
After studying with his father in Urbino and working in the busy shop of Perugiano, Raphael moved to Florence. During his few years there between 1504 and 1508, he is known to have painted at least seventeen small devotional panels of the Madonna and Child. His obsession with the subject led him to bestow three Madonna paintings as wedding gifts. He also made several Madonna and child drawings that were never painted, but seem to be personal explorations. From Raphael’s brief career some thirty-four paintings of the Virgin and Child still survive. Arnold doesn’t appear to be as near as prolific with his creations of Madonnas with child, because I can only recall a small handful:
Akane and Sukura
Maeve and her as yet unnamed daughter
Lakota elder, Wichapi - her son, Etu
“Cottage Mother” - her son “young Ford”
But, we also have fathers and child:
Lawrence has a daughter
Arnold himself, has a son
Peter Abernathy has Dolores
William/Man In Black has his daughter Grace
Maybe I’m missing something, but to me it seems as if the hosts with daughters or sons are the ones that are following the maze that Arnold created, driven by love and/or a maternal or paternal instinct. I mentioned upthread that in the original Westworld movie the Man in Black was a host. After his failure with Mr Delos, did William conspire with Arnold to insert himself in a host? Perhaps all the hosts that have children are like Arnold/Bernard, who I suspect was implanted with a human consciousness. If true, there is a contrariness to the Man in Black being repeatedly told that the maze isn’t meant for him, but which hosts have been telling him that? Ones that Arnold created? Or ones that Ford did? Did Ford "hack" Arnold's experiment? Seems to me he's running interference - first by murdering Arnold, then by continually diverting the hosts, and lastly by preventing Delos Corp from stopping him. Ford wants to be God, but do his plans include allowing any other human consciousness into his virtual reality world?
Kiksuya, at first glance looked Japanese to me, but it’s actually a Lakota word pronounced “kiksúyA”. It means, “to remember, recall, recollect, or call to mind”. In this episode we witness Ake’s awakening, his ability to recall his past lives, and his desire to reconnect to his original life with Kohana. I have to admit his story had me weeping many times throughout the episode. It was beautifully told, and I forgot that Akecheta was a robot.
Through Ake we learn how he came to find the maze in a tavern after coming upon the aftermath of Arnold’s shooting by “the deathbringer”, Dolores. The maze seemed to awaken something deep inside his programming and he gets fixated by the maze, drawing it everywhere, and annoying his fellow warriors. But, before he can figure it out he’s taken away to be updated for a new narrative and he comes back “breathing fire”. The next time we see him about to get an upgrade, the techs comment that he hasn’t been updated in 10 years. The ramifications being that we now know how long ago Arnold was killed. The techs also referred to Ake as an “alpha”, which must refer to the level of his operating system, and how bots that “aren’t supposed to die” in their narrative are not updated, thus also “alpha”. This seems like an important detail we should remember. One other detail that stood out was that the maze at the bar was left with a shot of whiskey. Was the whiskey purposely left for the Man in Black to find? I don’t know if you’re familiar with the original Westworld movie from the 70’s, but in that version the Man in Black is actually a host.
Even though Ake is now one of the Ghost Nation warriors “breathing fire”, he continues to obsess about the maze. Then one day he finds Logan, naked and sunsick - or maybe over-dosing - and Logan’s words about the world being an illusion, that there is another world, and there should we a way out, helps further Ake’s understanding. Logan just wants out of the park, but it causes Ake to set out to look for this door - which he finds - but when he goes back with Kohana, the door was gone. A new landscape had been completed and the door concealed.
Ake talks to a village elder who’s son has been “replaced”. The elder gave Ake valuable information about “them” - the people “below” ground, and Ake finally realizes that he has to “die” to find Kohana. What is notable about the scene is the elder, who is also a mother - one of Raphael’s - er, Arnold’s Madonnas. Ake referred to Arnold as “the creator”, and while Ford knew about the maze, he seemed confused that Ake was still trying to follow it. I believe our take away is to conclude that the creator of the maze was Arnold.
One significant feature of Raphael’s Madonna compositions that set him apart from other Madonna painters, are that Raphael’s mother and child compositions form a seamless unit - the figures are tied by interlocking gestures and unified by shared gazes. I suspect that we can expect the same interlocked-unification between the parental units that Arnold created.
After studying with his father in Urbino and working in the busy shop of Perugiano, Raphael moved to Florence. During his few years there between 1504 and 1508, he is known to have painted at least seventeen small devotional panels of the Madonna and Child. His obsession with the subject led him to bestow three Madonna paintings as wedding gifts. He also made several Madonna and child drawings that were never painted, but seem to be personal explorations. From Raphael’s brief career some thirty-four paintings of the Virgin and Child still survive. Arnold doesn’t appear to be as near as prolific with his creations of Madonnas with child, because I can only recall a small handful:
Akane and Sukura
Maeve and her as yet unnamed daughter
Lakota elder, Wichapi - her son, Etu
“Cottage Mother” - her son “young Ford”
But, we also have fathers and child:
Lawrence has a daughter
Arnold himself, has a son
Peter Abernathy has Dolores
William/Man In Black has his daughter Grace
Maybe I’m missing something, but to me it seems as if the hosts with daughters or sons are the ones that are following the maze that Arnold created, driven by love and/or a maternal or paternal instinct. I mentioned upthread that in the original Westworld movie the Man in Black was a host. After his failure with Mr Delos, did William conspire with Arnold to insert himself in a host? Perhaps all the hosts that have children are like Arnold/Bernard, who I suspect was implanted with a human consciousness. If true, there is a contrariness to the Man in Black being repeatedly told that the maze isn’t meant for him, but which hosts have been telling him that? Ones that Arnold created? Or ones that Ford did? Did Ford "hack" Arnold's experiment? Seems to me he's running interference - first by murdering Arnold, then by continually diverting the hosts, and lastly by preventing Delos Corp from stopping him. Ford wants to be God, but do his plans include allowing any other human consciousness into his virtual reality world?