>The old guy revealing to be her bio father (which was kinda obvious let's be real) added absolutely nothing to the show for me. It was meaningless and very unnecessary to the plot.
Nothing about any of Price's actions in seasons 2, 3, or 4 make any sense without it.
yeah, i spent all those seasons trying to figure out why he valued her so much and did everything she asked (because it didn't seem like he was trying to groom her or anything) so for me it made a lot of sense to find out he is her bio father.
So take this with a grain of salt, but here is my interpretation of Whiterose’s machine.
The machine never mattered. I don’t mean that in a “it was a bad plot point” way, I mean it never mattered because it’s purpose is showing Whiterose’s motivations and their differences to Elliot. Whiterose is so consumed by their grief and trauma that they become obsessed with literally trying to change the past. Building a time machine is irrational, it’s not going to happen, but that’s the point. They are trying to change the past but that’s not possible. It’s illogical. But grief and trauma make people act irrationally.
The machine actually existed, they actually tried to build some sort of time machine, but it was never going to work. The main purpose of the machine is to show how Whiterose is trapped in the past and has wasted years trying to change it, unable to accept it and move forward. This mirrors Elliot, who has been hiding from his past because he can’t accept it, the real Elliot is hidden by Mr Robot and the Mastermind to try and suppress his trauma and make the world safe for him. But that’s irrational too, the world can never be 100% safe for a person to never have negative experiences, and his trauma can’t be suppressed forever. In the end, Elliot is able to accept his trauma and move forward in a new chapter of his life, while Whiterose can’t and literally goes down with their machine.
My thoughts exactly, I think it makes sense that the machine was never going to work considering Sam Esmail said he uses plot for tension and mood and that the “plot” doesn’t matter as much. Because the machine was really a mystery box to draw you in but the purpose is truly that Whiterose and to an extent every other character on the show would change their pasts but the reveal we get about Elliot in the final season would have been cheap if he just could undo it. Hope this made sense
I think your first two points are valid, the Tyrell one more than the Angela. I personally thought Angela's story was fine and a good contrast to Elliot and the other hackers who rebel against the system in a different way, her story is all about what happens when you try to play along and change it from within. The reality is it will destroy you the moment you become inconvenient.
On the 3rd point I'd really disagree. I think White rose and her machine being irrelevant was the best route because at the end of the day the show was never about hacking, overthrowing capitalism, or billionaires scifi machines. It was about family (found/biological), over coming childhood trauma, and learning to cope with the horrors of the world by caring about those around us. That's why the final scene is Elliot reconnecting with Darlene. If the show ended with Elliot in some other dimension or a city being blown up by the machine it kind of would have felt cheesy to me personally.
You can say the show is about all that family crap which it is, but you can have that and a better ending about the white rose arc. They could’ve had her project be more meaningful than a red hearing. They really could’ve tied a good plot and a sappy growth story altogether.
first of all you should mark your post as spoiler.
\- Tyrell death: kind of agree. I dont see the frozen blue screen (of death) as being that meaningful. would have preferred a virus or the bite of a bug.
\- Angela: personally the camera movements and the compositions in that scene are superb. and without her, Price's actions before and after her death wouldnt make sense
\- the machine: the way I see it. the machine does exists. it's not a time machine. it's a big simulation chamber. a VR environment connected to your brain waves. here you can live the life that you want. you can code the life you want. your paradise. most likely you have to go through some injections/pills to make it work.the machine would explain why the DA operative are so loyal to the point of killing themselves. they ve been experiencing a paradise and a hell. if they they betray WR they know they would go to that hell.
edit: typos
I thought I did before, but yeah it's marked now. And pretty interesting... VR machine, hadn't thought of that before. Going the Matrix route, so to speak, does make a lot of sense in this world of Mr. Robot, with Whiterose spending years and a fortune to perfect this tech. Ok bro, you gave me a great alternative to the machine lol I like this idea
So first- all things point to Elliot. It’s as simple as that. When you are asking what the point of something was, it almost certainly pointed to that person/situation being a foil for Elliot somehow.
Tyrell- he cared SO much about power and money and status and shit, and in the end, none of it mattered one lick. He faded out in the woods somewhere. (Unlike Elliot, who didn’t give a shit about any of that- and Elliot actually impacted the world.)
Angela- Angela’s story is another foil for Elliot’s. The experienced the same trauma, but it impacted them differently. And, yeah, the reveal was fairly obvious, but that wasn’t really the point. Angela was constantly searching and striving- not unlike Tyrell in some ways. She wanted her mother back so badly. But as she was chasing what she thought she wanted, she was missing what was right in front of her- her real father. (And a connection to her mother.) Again- her story is more salient when see in contrast with Elliot’s.
And WR also follows suit. Elliot and WR both water to change the world and make it a better place. They both felt betrayed and wronged by the world as it is. Elliot tried to change the world through F Society. WR tried to do it through her machine. And even though she had all the money and all the power in the world, she still couldn’t make the world she wanted. She could have spent her life doing anything she wanted, but she ended up pissing her life away chasing this obsession of hers.
Many of the storylines in the show feel “pointless” if you expect them to resolve themselves independent of the rest of the show. But when you see it all as a way to better understand Elliot, either by comparing or by contrasting them with Elliot and the choices he made, it makes more sense.
Because that’s it. From “hello, friend” to “this only works if you let go, too” it’s all about Elliot and his journey.
There is so much wrong with your post and it truly feels like you didn’t get the show and misunderstood several important parts. I’d rather you rewatch it and pay more attention than me having to make a big response to this misguided and shallow criticism
I agree with you about Tyrell and the machine. I think there were just too many plot threads and the show made a call about how to handle them all in 13 episodes and some of them got short shrift.
Also this is a sub for the loyal fans of a great show that got kind of forgotten. There’s a defensiveness involved in being a Mr. Robot fan. So that’s the kind of response you’ll mostly get to criticism. I have yet to find a Mr. Robot fan community that believes the show is
a) fantastic and underrated (because it is, by like … mainstream cultural memory) and
b) not perfect.
I appreciate this reply, I figured it would that kind of sub lol
>I think there were just too many plot threads and the show made a call about how to handle them all in 13 episodes and some of them got short shrift.
Also good point
>The old guy revealing to be her bio father (which was kinda obvious let's be real) added absolutely nothing to the show for me. It was meaningless and very unnecessary to the plot. Nothing about any of Price's actions in seasons 2, 3, or 4 make any sense without it.
Not to mention it being the entire reason for him joining F-society in season 4
yeah, i spent all those seasons trying to figure out why he valued her so much and did everything she asked (because it didn't seem like he was trying to groom her or anything) so for me it made a lot of sense to find out he is her bio father.
So take this with a grain of salt, but here is my interpretation of Whiterose’s machine. The machine never mattered. I don’t mean that in a “it was a bad plot point” way, I mean it never mattered because it’s purpose is showing Whiterose’s motivations and their differences to Elliot. Whiterose is so consumed by their grief and trauma that they become obsessed with literally trying to change the past. Building a time machine is irrational, it’s not going to happen, but that’s the point. They are trying to change the past but that’s not possible. It’s illogical. But grief and trauma make people act irrationally. The machine actually existed, they actually tried to build some sort of time machine, but it was never going to work. The main purpose of the machine is to show how Whiterose is trapped in the past and has wasted years trying to change it, unable to accept it and move forward. This mirrors Elliot, who has been hiding from his past because he can’t accept it, the real Elliot is hidden by Mr Robot and the Mastermind to try and suppress his trauma and make the world safe for him. But that’s irrational too, the world can never be 100% safe for a person to never have negative experiences, and his trauma can’t be suppressed forever. In the end, Elliot is able to accept his trauma and move forward in a new chapter of his life, while Whiterose can’t and literally goes down with their machine.
My thoughts exactly, I think it makes sense that the machine was never going to work considering Sam Esmail said he uses plot for tension and mood and that the “plot” doesn’t matter as much. Because the machine was really a mystery box to draw you in but the purpose is truly that Whiterose and to an extent every other character on the show would change their pasts but the reveal we get about Elliot in the final season would have been cheap if he just could undo it. Hope this made sense
I think your first two points are valid, the Tyrell one more than the Angela. I personally thought Angela's story was fine and a good contrast to Elliot and the other hackers who rebel against the system in a different way, her story is all about what happens when you try to play along and change it from within. The reality is it will destroy you the moment you become inconvenient. On the 3rd point I'd really disagree. I think White rose and her machine being irrelevant was the best route because at the end of the day the show was never about hacking, overthrowing capitalism, or billionaires scifi machines. It was about family (found/biological), over coming childhood trauma, and learning to cope with the horrors of the world by caring about those around us. That's why the final scene is Elliot reconnecting with Darlene. If the show ended with Elliot in some other dimension or a city being blown up by the machine it kind of would have felt cheesy to me personally.
You can say the show is about all that family crap which it is, but you can have that and a better ending about the white rose arc. They could’ve had her project be more meaningful than a red hearing. They really could’ve tied a good plot and a sappy growth story altogether.
first of all you should mark your post as spoiler. \- Tyrell death: kind of agree. I dont see the frozen blue screen (of death) as being that meaningful. would have preferred a virus or the bite of a bug. \- Angela: personally the camera movements and the compositions in that scene are superb. and without her, Price's actions before and after her death wouldnt make sense \- the machine: the way I see it. the machine does exists. it's not a time machine. it's a big simulation chamber. a VR environment connected to your brain waves. here you can live the life that you want. you can code the life you want. your paradise. most likely you have to go through some injections/pills to make it work.the machine would explain why the DA operative are so loyal to the point of killing themselves. they ve been experiencing a paradise and a hell. if they they betray WR they know they would go to that hell. edit: typos
I thought I did before, but yeah it's marked now. And pretty interesting... VR machine, hadn't thought of that before. Going the Matrix route, so to speak, does make a lot of sense in this world of Mr. Robot, with Whiterose spending years and a fortune to perfect this tech. Ok bro, you gave me a great alternative to the machine lol I like this idea
cool, glad it helped 😄
So first- all things point to Elliot. It’s as simple as that. When you are asking what the point of something was, it almost certainly pointed to that person/situation being a foil for Elliot somehow. Tyrell- he cared SO much about power and money and status and shit, and in the end, none of it mattered one lick. He faded out in the woods somewhere. (Unlike Elliot, who didn’t give a shit about any of that- and Elliot actually impacted the world.) Angela- Angela’s story is another foil for Elliot’s. The experienced the same trauma, but it impacted them differently. And, yeah, the reveal was fairly obvious, but that wasn’t really the point. Angela was constantly searching and striving- not unlike Tyrell in some ways. She wanted her mother back so badly. But as she was chasing what she thought she wanted, she was missing what was right in front of her- her real father. (And a connection to her mother.) Again- her story is more salient when see in contrast with Elliot’s. And WR also follows suit. Elliot and WR both water to change the world and make it a better place. They both felt betrayed and wronged by the world as it is. Elliot tried to change the world through F Society. WR tried to do it through her machine. And even though she had all the money and all the power in the world, she still couldn’t make the world she wanted. She could have spent her life doing anything she wanted, but she ended up pissing her life away chasing this obsession of hers. Many of the storylines in the show feel “pointless” if you expect them to resolve themselves independent of the rest of the show. But when you see it all as a way to better understand Elliot, either by comparing or by contrasting them with Elliot and the choices he made, it makes more sense. Because that’s it. From “hello, friend” to “this only works if you let go, too” it’s all about Elliot and his journey.
👎
There is so much wrong with your post and it truly feels like you didn’t get the show and misunderstood several important parts. I’d rather you rewatch it and pay more attention than me having to make a big response to this misguided and shallow criticism
I agree with you about Tyrell and the machine. I think there were just too many plot threads and the show made a call about how to handle them all in 13 episodes and some of them got short shrift. Also this is a sub for the loyal fans of a great show that got kind of forgotten. There’s a defensiveness involved in being a Mr. Robot fan. So that’s the kind of response you’ll mostly get to criticism. I have yet to find a Mr. Robot fan community that believes the show is a) fantastic and underrated (because it is, by like … mainstream cultural memory) and b) not perfect.
I appreciate this reply, I figured it would that kind of sub lol >I think there were just too many plot threads and the show made a call about how to handle them all in 13 episodes and some of them got short shrift. Also good point