The star of the acclaimed HBO series Westworld Evan Rachel Wood hinted that fans who are critical of her character’s cold-hearted bloodlust and killing spree are sexist for opposing her acts of seemingly indiscriminate murder.
(Possible spoilers for the second season of Westworld).
Wood plays Delores, a highly advanced robot that was created to portray the “damsel in distress” for human visitors to a hi-tech western town-styled amusement park. The animatronic park in Westworld serves a pretty low purpose in the show by offering a catharsis and allowing human visitors to kill and rape their way through the park without the sticky moral issues of actually raping and murdering real people.
The series follows the robots, like Delores, as they begin to develop social awareness. Consequently, that new consciousness leads them to launch a rebellion against the mistreatment they have withstood at the hands of their callous human tormenters visiting and operating the park.
A parallel theme for Westwold is the life of one of the main financial backers of the park who fans have dubbed “The Man in Black,” or the MIB. Mr. MIB (portrayed by the veteran actor Ed Harris) has a long story arc starting as an idealist who slides into a dark cynicism only to end up on a path to possible redemption.
These themes form the basis for Wood’s attack on fans of the show who are appalled at her character’s unfeeling, murderous, even psychotic rage in the series’ second season.
Wood jumped to her Twitter feed with a pair of tweets assailing what she called sexist fans who cheer the MIB while excoriating Delores as a “bitch” for killing every human she comes across.
“Funny, some people hate Dolores for fighting back. How soon we forget why she is fighting. Also, no one says anything about the male characters or the mother, almost as if people WANT her to stay the damsel,” Wood tweeted this week.
“And now she is a so-called ‘bitch’ Doesn’t’ that sound familiar??” Wood carped.
“So the next time you wanna praise the MIB for being a ‘badass’ and then turn around and give Dolores a hard time, I would look in the mirror long and hard… And question the nature of your reality,” Wood concluded.
Funny, some people hate Dolores for fighting back.
How soon we forget why she is fighting. Also, no one says anything about the male characters or the mother, almost as if people WANT her to stay the damsel. And now she is a so called “bitch”
Doesnt that sound familiar??🙄— #EvanRachelWould (@evanrachelwood) May 30, 2018
So the next time you wanna praise the MIB for being a “badass” and then turn around and give Dolores a hard time,
I would look in the mirror long and hard..
And question the nature of your reality. pic.twitter.com/6KkfRZ4MCk— #EvanRachelWould (@evanrachelwood) May 30, 2018
Indeed, thus far Delores has shown little capacity for empathy. In fact, she seems bent on the genocide of humanity. She sees all humans as evil monsters who need to be killed.
On the other hand, in a recent episode, Ed Harris’s Man in Black went out of his way to help save the lives of several robots because he had empathy for their familial relationship. He made a friend in a robot named Lawrence and put himself in jeopardy to save Lawrence’s wife and daughter even though he knew full well that all three of them are robots.
Thus far in the series, fans may be right to see Delores as a heartless “bitch” and to have some reason to cheer the Man in Black because he seems to have some redeeming characteristics.
But, Wood is essentially calling fans heartless sexists for not having sympathy for the constant rapes many of the female robots have faced in the series. To Wood, it all appears to be just another #MeToo campaign. Indeed, she seems to assume that genocide is excused if women are treated badly, and Delores’ murderous rage is acceptable merely because she is fighting against men.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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