Maybe I'm just having withdrawal symptoms, but I saw a lot of Game Of Thrones parallels in last night's Westworld episode. The two already prompt a lot of comparison thanks to their supplementary time slots and gratuitous violence, but "Reunion" was the first time the dystopian epic seemed to pull direct inspiration from the George R.R. Martin adaptation, and it took us a whole season to get here.
By the end of the episode, we learn that pretty much every faction is after the same thing, although they all have different words for it: "glory," "the pearly gates," "the valley beyond." Whatever it is, Dolores, Maeve, and William are all searching for it, and they all need armies and allegiances to get there. Maeve has Lee Sizemore, Dolores has Major Craddock, and the Man In Black has Lawrence. These alliances are important, the search for an army even more so, and it almost directly echoes how the families in Game Of Thrones are all working towards rulership of Westeros, and must obtain armies and form alliances to get it.
Then there are the smaller moments. Dolores walking into that barn where Major Craddock and his men are having supper only to shut the door and murder them all felt very Red Wedding to me, and Logan's robot orgy mirrored the 80,000 orgies that have gone down on GOT. Essentially, Westworld has become less about being a mindfuck and more about power, about choosing who to root for and seeing which journey prevails. Let's just hope we find out the answer a little faster than George R.R. Martin.
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