Five ways Westworld could improve in season 3

1. Have more clearly-defined stakes

Think back to Game of Thrones season 2. What were the characters after that year? If you’ve forgotten, I’ll remind you:

• Stannis Baratheon wanted to take the Iron Throne.
• Tyrion Lannister wanted to stop him.
• Daenerys Targaryen wanted to find funds to raise an army and sail to Westeros.
• Theon Greyjoy wanted to prove himself to his father.
• Arya Stark wanted to survive long enough to reunite with her family.

What’s the common thread between these stories? We know what the characters want, which makes it easy to be happy for them when they get it and sad when they don’t. Well-defined stakes keep us interested. In Westworld season 2, most of the characters were driven by the same thing: they wanted to get to “the Valley Beyond” or “the Door” or “Glory” or “the Forge.” No matter what you called it, it had the same problem: until the final episode, we didn’t know what it was. If we don’t know what the Valley Beyond is, how can we be happy for the characters when they get closer to it, or cry for them when they suffer setbacks? For nine episodes, the season revolved around something without definition or form, and that made it hard to get invested.

Now, there’s something to be said for a show maintaining an air of mystery. Part of the fun can be guessing What It All Means — the fans on the Westworld subreddit certainly have a good time with that. But in the long run, a story driven by characters will always be more interesting. Which brings us to…