#2018MMM Antessesors Preview and Westworld Ep 2, Part 1
Daily Ramble 171: 2018MMM Antessesors Preview and Westworld Ep 2, Part 1
Today’s rambling carries on from previous topics looking at the 2018 March Mammal Madness and more specifically the Antessesor division and the second episode of Westworld. The Antessesors seem to be larger than live versions of animals I recall mostly from childhood. I seem to remember them fighting each other in Land of the Lost or Jurassic Park and mostly they were food for the Tyrannosaurus Rex. While a number of them are herbivores there are a few nasty carnivores that could be a formidable challenge for any of the modern day mammals in the tournament. On the other side of things, I started watching the second episode of Westworld and like the first, I’m taking bits at a time as I try to watch it on breaks at work.
2018MMM Antessesors Preview
The first round of the Antessesor battles takes place on Thursday, March 15th and they contain some interesting matchups. These guys are a bit more unknown to me other than they happen to be mostly prehistoric. Some lean more towards the dinosaur or reptile side of the animal kingdom and some are quite large.
- Doedicurus (winner) vs. Jugulator
- Cynognathus vs. Thalassocnus (winner)
- Thylacoleo (winner) vs. Procoptodon
- Andrewsarchus (winner) vs. Naralagus rex
- Pseudaelurus (winner) vs. Archaeoindris
- Dimetrodon (winner) vs. Aegyptopithecus
- Homo Floresiensis vs. Palaeoloxodon (winner)
- Amebelodon (winner) vs. Deinogalerix
I have to admit that for most of these battles I’m judging winners and losers based on how fierce the creature looks. I have a feeling the large elephantine critter might hold an advantage over the smaller rabbit, rat, or kangaroo type creatures. And I have to say I don’t really think the human precursor is gonna do to well on it’s own in this battle. Last year, the human ancestor had a hunting pack to rely upon and they fought pretty well but this year, with only a single representative, I think they may get squashed early.
You can follow all the 2018 March Mammal Madness action at Mammals Suck…Milk! and in particular on Twitter with the hash tag #2108MMM.
First Look at Episode 2 of Westworld – Chestnut, Part 1
In the first episode of the show we seemed to get the layout of the world…we met hosts, who are the androids, and the techs/administrators (humans) who make sure the park runs smoothly. And I just now realized that the lay of the land is very similar to another Michael Crichton world…Jurassic Park which is closely related to the Antessesors above…interesting links.
In any case, we begin Chestnut similarly to the first episode by waking up with Dolores but this time as she heads out onto her farm someone whispers on the wind…“Remember”…
We then jump to a high tech train headed towards Westworld where we meet William (Jimmie Simpson), our main guest, and his soon to be brother-in-law Lawrence (Clifton Collins Jr.). As they arrive at the station, Lawrence who’s been to the park before heads off with a few hosts leaving William with a woman (host) to get the feel of the place. She interviews him for some basic information and informs him that the center of the park is the safest zone and as you travel further out, things get more complicated and intense. She also tells him that the hosts are there for whatever the guests want and to not worry about shooting anyone since a guest can’t kill anyone they’re not supposed to.
As William gets prepared for entry into the park, the techs are hard at work trying to figure out what went on with the hosts in the last episode. In particular, they are trying to understand what occurred to cause Dolores’ dad to glitch out and have a major malfunction. Apparently though, they’re not allowed to run any tests on the hosts once they’ve been decommissioned…this seems to be an oversight that could lead to some problems.
As one of the techs suggests that she take a closer look at Dolores, we see her walking through the town. People are rushing from place to place just like you’d expect from a frontier town and then someone whispers “Remember” again. This time, Dolores turns around and sees the town all shot up. People are lying all over and look dead, and she’s the only one standing other than a wolf that walks across the street. Something strange is definitely going on here but we’re only getting little pieces of the puzzle as we go.
She snaps outta the vision as Maeve approaches and asks her to stop blocking the entrance to the saloon and as she turns to leave, she repeats the virus phrase to her…These violent delights have violent ends…
Now we’ve got 2 hosts that are infected and the techs don’t know about either.