Westworld: The Man in Black - The Gamification of Life 

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They chose wisely with Ed Harris😍

William is actually the ultimate gamer. A lot of people who invest tremendous amount of time in games would be successful (in terms of wealth and status) in real life as he is if they implemented what they learnt. When something gets repetitive or acts in patterns you inevitably start to focus on results instead of the experience itself, hence the "skipping" and "farming" in video games. This happens in real life too (with grades or a repetitive job for example)

Yeah it’s interesting in how he wants West world to be more real but yet he doesn’t deal with the real world very well...

Missing the point of being human, very well put. Sums up why the character is at the same time tragic and terryfing.

Man in Black is the best written character

Breaking Bad and Westworld videos one after the other? Yes please.

Great video! It also links to Arnold's idea of consciousness. William/Man in Black is trying to go up the pyramid of consciousness, yet fails to realise that consciousness is not a journey upward, it's a journey inward. Unlike William, Deloris realises this by the final episode, discovering the voice in her head guiding her, was herself, her own inner-voice that humans have. She's reached that level. Ironically, Deloris is more human than William, he's missed the whole point in trying to gather meaning and where to find it, to the point where he's abandoned his inner-voice, acting as a guide or voice of morality i.e. indiscriminate murder, (implied) rape, etc.

The Man in Black: the existentialist's horror story.

I think this is one of your best videos yet. So insightful. You're doing great work!

I love this video, you did a wonderful job explaining a very complex character to one of my favorite shows. Brilliant

This is a great take I'd never even thought about despite knowing/noticing the obvious, that the Man in Black was just playing a really big RPG. I just automatically understood the interpretation that reads the core philosophy of the show as a metaphysical examination of "what is life/being?" without making the teensy little hop that connected it to the gamification of modern life like is laid out almost too plainly in some Black Mirror episodes.

Y’all keep pushing this amazing content! You keep me on my toes every Sunday! Love it!

He does talk to the hosts like they're video game characters - haha! After seeing this, I'm going to hang onto every word out of TMIB's mouth tonight. Thanks for the timely content! I'M SO EXCITED FOR WESTWORLD'S RETURN TONIGHT!

Love that you included a clip of halt and catch fire! This is one of my top 3 shows of all time. I love what it has to say about connections, people's ability to evolve beyond their flaws and the value in failing so we can be open to new things and become greater. It would be amazing if you ladies did a video on this highly underrated show

I always enjoy your thoughtful analysis.

Favorite Channel On RU-vid Thank you for the amazing content ladies

"The way the Men in Black relates to westworld is eerliy similar to how you feel about a videogame you played a thousand times" I'm Commander Shepard and I approve this message!

These vids are so wildly thoughtful. Please keep up the amazing work!!!

The most insightful and meaningful commentary to WW. I even began to think there isn't one. Well done.

Your video makes me re-watch the season and re-think what I learnt from it. EXCELLENT ANALYSIS!!!

More WestWorld please! You ladies kill it every time. Excellent work 👍🏻❤️

Awww snap @screen prism killin it again! Love this show and perfect timing!! Awesome work!!

I loved this. Also a good recap before the second season starts. Thank you as always for putting up quality work. PS. Girls, I know that we as viewers can’t even imagine how much effort you put in these video-essays and demanding stuff here is not the most grateful thing to do, but I’m still waiting for that Phoebe and Joey videos.

Before 5 millon views! Thank you so much girls! You're the best! I was watching the first season again but I stopped just for your video. Again, spetacular video. I gotta say, William/The Man in Black is the most fascinating human charecter after Dr. Ford. He is the kind of charecter you love to hate. Despite the terrible things he has done, you don't want him to die. Ed Harris made a outstanding work as MIB, and now we know the truth, we can expect the same from Jimmi Simpson.

You two, together, are a formidable team of teachers who make folks think deeply.👏🏿

Omg you guys are so beautiful! Loved the analysis :)

This is the one channel who's long videos I don't mind 😍👌🏻👏🏻 Oh, and... This video is GOLD😍😍

I just became a newcomer to this channel and 30 years from now I'm going to be a shell of myself. I am gonna learn to navigate through this channel and I'm going to get very good at it, yet I will remain empty and in search of feeling by trolling other users. I am The Man in Plad PJs🤘

All these Westworld videos all over RU-vid makes me happy! Cannot wait for 7

Y’all are so awesome!!! I love Westworld and y’all!!

Amazing channel girls, great analysis and really well-made videos! Whole evening gone after I accidentally clicked on one of your Disney videos but I don't regret it :) And you really cut it with MiB here.

One of the best. The things that count, dont always matter, and that which matters, cant always be counted.

Mindfully said into words Thank you guys for the content and this video breakdown

I'm in love with Sussana's voice and smart analysis of the show.

Great content; I always look forward to your videos!

Knew something like this would come out today, awesome job!

Awesome video and explanations... Great work

Honestly I can completely understand that feeling. Every video, twitch clip or instagram post I make I know I'm comparing it's success not by the finished quality but by how many views, likes or shares it gets.

You guy are producing some fire the weekend!

Thank you for another great analysis

Nicely done, ladies! I just started Season Two... wow! Every bit as good, so far, as #1.

I think I get shows like this then I watch your videos..... always thought provoking!

Thanks for all the insight provided in ypu in-depth analysis of this aspect of "Westworld" from a gamer's perspective and what is more important in the "real" world. Pretty interesting. I'm your new subscriber 😃

I really hope you make another westworld video! The newest season ends soon and it is so good!

How much “meaning” can squeeze out of a super rich dude, who’s been role playing a villain cowboy for the last 30 years. It’s a fantasy theme park for super rich people.

it's like you missed the entire point of his character

Omg, I can't believe I've only just discovered this channel! You ladies are so perceptive and smart. A definite sub!

Love this channel!!!!!!

Great as always!

The editing on these videos is incredible! I’m in the beginning stages of learning Adobe Premiere and I hope to get up to the skill level of this channel someday. I’d love to see a video on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and how it works to subvert sexist tropes (if you haven’t already done one). Keep up the good work!

Great content. Great voices

I loved this. It almost cured my existential crisis.

I think the Man in Black wants the hosts to attain sentience. That’s why he abuses them, he even said that’s when they’re the most human. It’s like Plato’s allegory of the cave.

Great video

Incredible interpretation, congrats

Really great video, Westworld is a marvelous series and Man In Black has one of the greatest plot of the show. In the video you put some scenes of Halt and Catch Fire, it would be amazing if you work on essays about ut, it's a great series as well and so good characters to work on, please make Halt and Catch Fire videos too?

This is excellent.

insightful :)

I'd really love to hear your take on The Red Turtle!!

These videos are incredible. Have you considered doing any of the characters from Hannibal?

I like your overview and the way you presented very much. It is something I would overlook, not being a gamer. So having your insight certainly makes me consider other possibilities. That photograph of William's wife bothers me as it may have a clue hidden in the same way the photograph of Ford, his father and Arnold was.

Have y'all done Halt and Catch Fire? It is also a great show that could use a video analysis too

More Westworld Takes pls 😊

jesse and man in black in one day ? thats insane, pretty rare seeing quantity with qualitty

I've got to say after watching Episode 4 Season 2. This contents of this video is legit.

100%. William is our proxy and this is his story we're supposed learn lessons from.

Yes finally ❤️

I haven't listened to all of your commentary so I am throwing out things that you may have already covered but I am curious if you have mentioned or examined in your insights to this marvelous series. My main insights have to do with the conflict between the MIB and Dr Ford. It is clear that for Ford the MIB represents everything he judges as corrupt in human consciousness and yet he is still engaging him in his final game. Of course he detests all things Delos and that his world had to depend on Delos's money and research interests to keep afloat but more than that the MIB represents the opposite of learning to Ford. As the MIB Is constantly reminded the maze the inward journey that develops in Ford's machines is not an option for him and if we take away something from Delore's perspective perhaps any human because humans do not survive their own death. It is not just suffering that has informed Delore's sentient awakening but extreme suffering, dying a thousand times witnessing others die. The MIB's suffering has in the first season only given vengence as fruit he kills tortures indiscriminantly to “ see” that his is a loop of souless bitterness. I believe that his journey is a forshadowing of Delore's and so just as the MIB in the second season begins to have compassion for the machines Delores begins to question her path and possible bitter future as reflected by the modified Teddy becoming only a programmed errand runner. In the end they both ask the question what point is existence without relationship? So instead of Ford merely programming a host to seek out and murder the MIB he is going to take him through something which allows for the possibility of escape for the MIB by returning him to the valuing of human existence or any sentient existence however far behind the learning curve it may be that William displayed in the initial episodes of the first season. Is it possible that Ford now that he is beyond Delos's reach and beyond the possible degeneration of host/human integration is searching for a way to reconcile the two “species”? Of course none of that is possible as long as hosts are being used for human exploitation so Delos has to be destroyed but the MIB is on board with the same goal as Delores. Assuming that Ford knows this it would seem likely that the outcome that is in everyones interest would be to come to some kind of protective ie Mothering role for the continuance of sentient learning in hosts and the modification of human mortality. The question is what is Ford's learning curve? As in the first season that will probably be the final reveal.

well said

I'm surprised HBO didn't hire you girls to show this perspective within there shows like westworld and game of thrones because your so damn good at it!!!!

I disagree with the assertion that life isn't a game, all things are games with winners and losers. The fact that in the end we all die hardly means that we all have the same ending. This isn't to say that one should min max their life in order to achieve the highest possible score, I don't think that sort of strategy works in this sort of a scenario, there are just too many variables in play. The choices that you make will have an effect on how you experience the game, which itself is highly asymmetric; we aren't all born with the same number of points to distribute on our character sheets, we aren't all born into the same socioeconomic circumstances, or in countries that all share the same laws. The list of asymmetric features in this game of life we all play could easily go on. We also only get one shot at this game, there are guides written by those who have played before that we can use to help guide us, but the choices that they made and the outcome therein aren't guaranteed to work the same for every player. The game is open-ended with no clear victory conditions, and it isn't a win-lose game like so many others; Rather it is a solitary game played on a massive player server. Your victory might be amassing wealth, reaching a certain level of fame, or "saving" a certain number of other players through spirituality/religion, while my victory might be simply getting by without being a burden to the players around me.

Life *IS* a game. Beginning. End. Players. Challenges/achievements. "Hidden" Easter Eggs of wisdom. If you play "The Sims" long enough, you realize that the repetitive tasks of daily life are tedious. Searching for a deeper meaning/purpose is what it's all about. And the entire journey is about making it to the next phase/level.

yessssssssss i love westworld

Astute observation, but the revelation that he was searching for the androids hidden humanity and freedom of true choice tells us that maybe his desire in this world was more of a hang up of gis first experience. Which does not dilute your points but tells us there is another layer to the man in black. If he survived the last part of s1 i think we will get to see this in s2

MIB: Where's the center of the maze? Buddha: There's no center son.

I would like to see a video about Rustin Cohle from the 1st season of True Detective next or a video about any character from Six feet under. Do you think that's possible?

Just made him on my channel👏🏼

The Man in Black is Nietzsche's Warlike Man.

This. is. so. good. It is amazing to find fellow female creators on RU-vid doing incredible work. May I ask how you keep up this production schedule? I am trying to do one per week (just started) and even that feels tricky. Thank you for inspiring us!

More Westworld analysis please.

I fucking love Westworld so much

I want the world to be a video game. Easier to deal with outcomes and scores then being moral or tide down by your own mental blocks. In a game your free to choose without limits, one becomes God in their own right when in a game.

God damn deep. I'd like to see The Man in Black answer this.

Then a true master of a game is one who knows when to quit playing and to start luving

"I couldn't find myself among the living,among the dead I found myself"

I think it’d be awesome to get your ladies’ take on the six stories from the Ballad of Buster Scruggs 😊

Actually the Man in Black and his pursuit for AI sentience is commentary on how excessively following herd mentality or “hive-mindedness” leads to a lack of diversity in the long run. Usually crowds are right but exceptional ideas come from individuals not crowds.

I normally think there's no "wrong way" to play a video game. Guests like the Man in Black though are my big exception. The same people who try to break the game, to kill friendly NPCs, go on unprompted killing sprees in GTA. People who treat the game, not as an experience to immerse yourself but a space of unaccountability for cruelty.

We are stuck in a loop a tight as the hosts'! Tru dat Ford!

Now do an analysis of Elliot from Mr Robot and you would have made 3 videos on a row of 3 of the best TV shows ever made

The Man in Black is like most gamers. Play the story once, only the story, skip the side quests. 2nd Playthrough, side quest, fuck around but you have to go through this level, *cutscene* Skip skip skip skip skip skip. We skip all the dialogue/cutscene just to finish this sidequest so that we can get that achievement. We just skip the meaningful cutscenes that we used to watch whole heartedly and give it up so easily.

These questions were answered in the season 4

Have you done an analyze of the original movie?

My fav character is men in black he z proper emotional and badass

Beautiful..... Will my request of doing analysis on deathnote be taken into consideration?

Imagine playing a multiple choice game a dozen times afterwards you know what decisions lead to good outcomes. Then you get bored and decide to make choices that lead to bad outcomes. Essentually you turn into a black hat all becuase the restart button is at hand. No need.

What if the puzzle is just the brain and they just need to Unlock it ? Great video and always

More Mad Men videos, please!

Its a metaphor, as Dr Ford represents God the man in black represents mankind.