I particularly have come to absolutely detest the stock look of existential angst that Bernard greets every situation with.
Why? He is not you. I understand hating the existential angst if it was you experiencing the existential angst, but this is another person in a fictional show.
One of the cornerstone beliefs / values in almost all societies is that we have a duty / obligation / déon that you shall not kill. Now why people believe it is your duty not to kill depends on the person and the culture but believing human beings are things onto themselves and you should not kill another thing onto itself unless specifically necessary is pretty much a cornerstone belief you will find in so many humans. It seems to be Bernard's / Arnold's cornerstone. But you are going to say that it was the death of his son that was Bernard's / Arnold's cornerstone memory but that is not a cornerstone principle, it is not a cornerstone as in an organizing force. Thus it is likely the cornerstone principle that is in Bernard is that life is sacred and his relationship with this sacred principle and how these things affect him and make him feel.
Afterall, Arnold was willing to commit suicide in order to not cause pain, suffering to others that was endless. Bernard was changed ever so slightly so he will always search for another way. Wanting to protect life in general is just one stage removed from wanting to prevent endless suffering.
Now I understand you are different than Bernard and it is okay to find him frustrating, but why does consequences and virtue / goodness the only way to organize your behavior Tom?
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I see "New" Dolores as a character who is more external and less internal. We as an audience are not meant to explore why she is but instead how her actions affect other and what will happen if everyone thought like her. In some ways Dolores is not a character in a way we are supposed to explore her insides anymore but instead she is an elemental force, a thing of nature, that will impact others.
You can call that a walking plot device in the shape of a human, but I do not think we are supposed to see her anymore as human. She is literally a walking deus ex machima that moves the plot along, except she can be killed, defeated, thwarted unlike something like a thunderstorm or a god literally causing X to happen in the plot.
Maeve and Sizemore are great. Any opinions on Felix the Asian Tech who was effectively written out of Season 2?
Mark my words in less than a year the actor who played the Ghost Nation Guy / Akecheta, Zahn McClarnon, is going to win an Emmy for his performance in S2E8. Even though he has far less screen time than Jeffrey Wright in Season 1 of Westworld he stole the show and last year Jeffrey Wright won best supporting actor in a Drama for playing Bernard / Arnold.
On the whole, though, HBO took something that had a lot of potential and ended up avoiding so many interesting philosophical questions that could be played out and taken to their natural conclusions that I found it frustrating at times.
I feel overall with the plot 30% of it was padding and stuff that should have been trimmed and other uses of that 30% budget and screen time should have occured. Shogun World was great but it needed some tighter plot or faster plot (if the same things were reused) during the 40 to 80% points of the Shogun World Arc.
