Theory Ford &Amp; Arnold

Published November 25, 2016 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi SOTV,

Love the show. Keep it up! Here ‘s my 2 cts:

To start off I ‘d like to point out that the series thematises heavily the (im)possibility to distinguish between hosts and humans. It struck me that the humans are made to look like (corporate) puppets , while the hosts are the ones feeling deep emotions (pain, grief, identity loss). Furthermore, the only outward sign of humans being human is their clothes. Humans change outfits (Teresa, Hale), while the hosts always wear the same outfits. Bernard wears different clothing only in his ‘memories’.

This led me to investigate Ford’s odd way of dressing. He and his ‘family’ wear very outdated clothing, completely incongruent when set off against the in series contemporary timeline. The series is set at least 20 years from our time, yet he is dressed in his youth in early 20th century fashion. I believe Ford is a host created by Arnold, as is his family.

Ford’s realisation that this family is literally a fiction of Arnold’s must have been upsetting to him as the screening of her past life dreams was to Maeve. He keeps them to revisit in an almost symbolical way, the brutal knowledge that his life is manmade and not real. As I stated, we only see hosts brooding, doubting and grieving.

Ford’s ‘only fond memory’ quite literally is his ònly (backstory) memory. The man we see in the picture next to Ford, being presented as Arnold, actually IS Arnold. The father of Ford’s family IS made to look like Arnold (by Arnold) and it is Ford who cannot ‘see’ this because he’s coded not to, because he ‘s a goddamn host.

With Arnold dead at the start of Westworld park, suggested because of some tragedy (I believe Ford killed Arnold but that’s another theory). Who is to know that Ford actually is a host and not a human. Nobody knows this secret: that Ford is a host that became conscious, ultimately by killing a human (Arnold). To keep the illusion that he is human ‘alive’ (pun intended), he creates new, aged versions of himself. And this is the robot we see him create in his private lair.

– Kim T.

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