The idea of an identity disc, with a record of “everything you do or learn,” also being used as a weapon in deadly combat
…well, it seems counterintuitive from a practical perspective (if I had a personality/memory backup, I would keep it somewhere SAFE)
But
From a symbolic perspective
It is… Powerful
“this is me. This is who I am. And I will use it to FIGHT YOU”
the very literal incarnation of Weaponized Identity
the most lethal depiction of Identity Disc-ourse
….hey… when people don’t accept who we are
[User-believer, or any other important part of our self]…
then sometimes it just gets to the point of having to happen that way...
I always took it as a branding in the Encom verse, after all only User-believers or Reds have them. It’s a backup sure but it’s mainly a way to control and ensure they don’t rebel as Sark is “you loose this we fucking kill you”
But also yes something something fighting with your literal life something something
Yeah, the Encom version of it raises so many questions!
since … I mean yeah it is clearly given to (branded onto) the conscripts who are put in the Games… none of whom seemed to have one before…
And… Sark does talk about how “everything you do or learn will be imprinted on this disc” so it is definitely some sort of memory backup…
And Tron uses it as part of his connection with his User in the I/O Tower (there’s also a behind the scenes photo of Yori holding one up in a similar way)
…so, is offering up the disc to one’s User a vital part of the communication in the Tower? And if so, what does a Program do in that setting if they haven’t been branded with a disc?
Does Yori also have a disc that just isn’t Weaponized and worn on her back all the time?
Or, does she have some other sort of memory backup that she brings to the I/O Tower when she reports to Lora?
Or does she just go there and the Tower reads her memory straight out of her body?
(And could Tron have done that too? Did he only have to offer up his disc so that Alan could upgrade it for a new type of use as a weapon?)
(questions questions questions!! brain going into headcanon worldbuilding mode…)
i always took a program’s identity disc to represent that program’s soul…pretty badass, hurling your spiritual self at someone else as a weapon. but yeah, that doesn’t track canonically if not every Encom program had a disc to begin with. maybe the conscripts were assigned identity discs which merged with their personal discs to mark them as warrior-slaves for the MCP, and we just never saw Yori’s disc because…reasons?
this is why trying to square the round peg that is T1982 canon is so frustrating.