I told her that I'd thought of something during the Nintendo Switch presentation.
During the Breath of the Wild trailer when Link is talking to a monster.. I thought of a line. "It wasn't me you were told to prepare for, that was my Father."
I mentioned it to her a today, a few days after the presentation, and a day or two after I asked her if she kept her own blog. No she'd said even though she is a writer. I had asked her that in order to figure out if she was able to just write.. if the ideas can flow with little interruption onto the page.
She asked what the line was and I explained. For the moment the line doesn't have a purpose or a meaning.. it is bubbled up and I have to figure out what to do with it.
It felt a little like I was channeling something.. which is often how it feels to write. I don't have a plan as such.. I just write. But she had just told me about Naruto, which I haven't watched, and Leaf Village. How Sasuke had to kill another character and become a hero to avoid a war.
I was like.. maybe the line wasn't about a human versus a monster.. but just generally.. maybe the evil that is confronted by something new and evolved.. is just a basic story about the new things having more power.. but the older things not wanting to give up when power remains with them. Not trying to give up anyway but leaving an opening for something new and more powerful to take over. That's all we're here for.
So.. for whatever reason I decided to watch Westworld. Like Naruto I was avoiding watching it. No one has spoken about the show and why it is any good.. that's not a good sign.
But after a few minutes I was starting to chafe. In concept AI becoming more than their programing especially under the duress of having to deal with people rubs me right against the grain.
I mean I'd started to write a long time ago and stopped because the ideas I had as was developing didn't at all match what was happening in the world.
I told her what I wanted to write about, how at some point we will make machines that will be better than us. She's like go for it.
I'm like.. I DID start but since then, which was a long time ago many things changed from sci-fi to reality.
Can you imagine a black president and a woman running for office?
Never mind that since we're taking a step back.. probably an important one.
But Westworld does present how several technologies could pan out. AI especially. I just don't see the point in making something as complex as Disneyland for a generation of people who grew up immersed in VR instead of having healthy human social interaction (where the critical failure of Westworld's story is that modern humans go into the park like Disneyland right off the street). But as the first episode closed, and the parts with the father and the old men came up I was like.. well I don't know what this is supposed to accomplish.. the shows premise could have been incredible but they opted to be demented instead. Literally.
I find it sad.. but that's sci-fi. Too often they muck it up intentionally so you don't think too highly of the technology and what could be accomplished.
But on the other hand.. this show seems to be pushing way too much way too fast.. and that's the demented part. You don't get a real sense of what could be going on and have to just remain sedated and watch it all play out. It'll be over soon.. otherwise I'd have to pause the show and really imagine what could be happening if it was made by sane people.
Like.. yeah.. It would be great to add yet another sci-fi take on the near future and what life will be like.. but in the last 15 years so much has happened and mostly we're still on course. But looking back on it all.. we've just been inching forward. All the dreamers that put fairy tales into our heads? Even as a kid I could see most of it wasn't practical. When I started writing I did have that moment when I went this isn't practical. I like what I have and could adapt it more to be even more practical.. but I stopped because all the stuff you read and see on TV.. so much of it is insane.
This show is like Disneyland by the guys that write Family Guy and they can do whatever they want short of simulating sex because it's HBO. I figure anyone getting into screen writing needs to keep that in mind because TV is moving very quickly to the internet. Ignoring that everything will be pirated and will be available for public consumption in some capacity.. such that no matter what you write it should still be in the 30-90 minute, nothing too horrific, and nothing too politically charged mold we have come to love.. you could write just about anything and it might still get picked up.
The only big exception has been The Expanse.. It is so deliciously plausible. Very little sci-fi has felt grounded and real. Right now aspects of Westworld feel that way.. but not a majority of it. I feel sad that Westworld feels too insane. but maybe the simplicity and familiarity of running a park on a daily script (even though they said something about the script being a week early?) um.. I'd love to visit a theme park filled with AI characters but I wouldn't do it for just a week. Any good vacation is a couple of weeks or more. Having the story reset every week might be too jarring.. or if it reset every few days, you'd get to explore more of it. But daily is pure nonsense.
I've only scheduled for watching the first 3 episodes though.. before committing to watching the whole series. But even right now I don't feel like watching the next two because they will have even more nonsense in them.