I believed in the users once before | A system in disbelief
It’s so fascinating looking at legacy because basically in all of Flynn’s actions he has created the perfect situation to justify hatred and disbelief in the users.
Flynn did all the heavy work for Clu. There is no need to propagandize and lie when , in your view God has indeed abandoned you. He hadtaken a Polytheistic society that used to have more more individualized deities and inadvertently turned it Monotheistic. Between him constantly leaving and then going into hiding- to this society he truly has abandoned them. They have no other User input, requests, commands - he is it and he has left them.
As cycles go on belief wanes, this is a system that used to have direct and constant interactions with users and what they’re capable of and hasn’t in generations. Memory wanes, anger stews, distrust grows. And who comes in to pick up the pieces? Clu. He’s not making a single thing up, unlike most dictators he fully believes everything he spews and from a point of view… he’s right. (Again that’s terrifying).
Where the MCP had to forcefully capture and eliminate programs who still believed in the users (that he hadn’t assimilated or drained). Clu doesn’t. Belief was nearly stamped out organically!! In the grid it has truly become a cultish set of unwavering belief— unlike in Encom where it was a organic part of life stamped out by force. This is more “choosing to leave religion” if it’s comparative?
Those who fight in the games are strays- not regular programs but those broken or lost that are out just… wandering. Those are the ones that get tossed into the arena or rectified (from what we see in the movie) it’s not like the MCP. Clu doesn’t have to work so hard to get rid of belief because I cannot state enough, Flynn did all the heavy work himself.
In this grid the games are a purpose, horrific but using the infrastructure left behind by Flynn. Strays get the games — survival. Regular programs have something to do — watch.
There’s no mindcontrol in the crowd- their user hate and games enjoyment is a necessity if they want a society at all. If it is to believed— as Flynn himself stated Clu can’t create, he can repurpose. He’s the overseer! Not the creator. He’s doing what he can with what he has… he built Rome, which is not good (as sympathetic as I am towards Clu there’s like 12 other things you could’ve done before building Rome)
No one is a better example of Lost faith than Castor.
He’s fought for Flynn and his beloved ISOs , he was one of the best so much so he’s still sought after. He’s changed. “I believed but what did that do for me?” What did it get him but heartache and so many dead companions and at the end of it , after all this fighting Flynn disappears! His fall into self preservation and sour attitude towards users is completely understandable.
It’s sad that this has happened as the original film and novelization describe belief in the users as this intrinsic and natural thing all programs know to be true. And to have a situation where so many willingly abandon belief because there is no communication (‘user requests are what computers are for’) or purpose. That it had been made so easy for clu to turn that sorrow into a burning hatred. It is sad that this thing they all desire the most has basically been made into a cult sect who can’t let go of something that used to be so basic. Above all it’s just so fascinating that this all happened naturally supposed to by a regime, all Clu had to do was step up and acknowledge it.
In conclusion:
Now I’m not saying Flynn did any of this on purpose, he didn’t want to abandon anything, he didn’t want to create a system with no purpose. He was a excited young man who wanted to recreate something cool and was given the powers of a god. He didn’t know the impact even the smallest action could cause. He did not have bad intentions but oh boy did he fuck up.
I hope this makes even a lick of sense, I just have so many thoughts 😭
ohhhh yeah.
(this hits me HARD because of something I’ve posted about before)
(a certain mention on the Tron Wiki about his backstory)
ALT
a speculation that he is no longer the interpreter program he was designed to be…
that the identity has been co-opted illegally by…
…an actuarial algorithm…
just imagine you’re a sweet, curious (super-gay) actuarial program/hacktivist, who used to believe SO HARD in the Users… died for it in fact…
but you were backed up, and your hacktivist User is kind enough to let you sneak into the New Grid to see what’s up
but then… you can’t get back… you stop hearing from ANYONE out there… and this place is NOT what you feel you were promised
and your only way to survive is to hack your way into THIS guy’s position and hide out in your club, slowly losing any belief that one leader’s any better than another, at the top of this whole mess….
*cry*
The ram theory is so delightfully hard hitting and tragic? Being unable to return to what you know and so changed from what you used to be (both by transferring to a new system/changing to hide yourself). So detached from your friends back home and probably having no idea about Tron what so ever past whispers in the club he’s dead etc.
It only adds to him being an example of the user disbelief -> hate effect on the system and Oh that’s some good angst fic fodder too…
oh yeah exactly. All this.
(I do NOT fully believe it or want to believe it, because Ram deserves ONLY NICE THINGS after the 82 movie. But if I ever feel like thinking about TRAGEDY it’s right there)
ALT
