So, someone asked me how I imagine the “standard substandard training” given to User-Believers in Tron 1982.

And I wrote so much that… I feel it might be of interest here:

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Hmm! Well, since it’s “substandard,” and not really intended for improving their abilities much….

I would guess it’s very much like the experience that most people I’ve met remember from gym class in elementary, middle and high school.

That is: Being forced to do a lot of exercises… like pushups, sit-ups, chin-ups, etc…. none of which you can do quite properly without lots of practice and gradual improvement.

But you aren’t taught how to do that practice and gradual improvement. You just get repeatedly scolded that you’re doing it wrong– with no guidance on how to train your body to be able to do it right.

So like, maybe a FEW students will figure it out, or already have enough skills built that they can get something out of the training.

But the rest will just come out of each lesson exhausted and miserable… and most of them get derezzed in their first fight.

Since the ruling class under the MCP is “brutal and needlessly sadistic,” this is probably ideal for them. it provides a lot of easily-destroyed games-fodder (demoralized and blaming themselves for their lack of skill) for when they just want to laugh at someone being humiliated and totally obliterated.

Maybe fight a few of these weak ones against each other if they want to see a fight that’s not TOO one-sided. And of course, use them as opponents to train low-level Reds until they’re higher-level, without much danger to the Reds.

And then there are those few who are stronger– those ones they can pit against each other or equally-matched Reds, to see a fight with some actual skill.

(But we see that Sark and MCP are getting bored with this system by the time of the movie. It really doesn’t produce very MANY effective fighters. Which is why they want to move on to military programs.)

(And now I am feeling renewed anger toward grade-school phy-ed class… AND wondering how many gym teachers dream of being military drill sergeants. Hah.)

As for what this translates to in programming terms…

I imagine that every visible/audible/tangible thing in the computer system is a sort of graphic interface, representing some function of the programming in there. That’s kinda the only way it all makes any sense to me.

So, the discs represent one’s memories / identity (either a backup copy or the only copy, I’m not sure)… so fighting with discs represents the fact that there’s some function within a program’s memory/identity that can be used as a weapon to cause damage to other programs.

The exact motions of the fight would represent the exact steps involved in doing that harm (and therefore I think that could influence the amount and type of harm, though that usually wouldn’t matter much, because with enough damage done it would all add up to deresolution in nearly every case).

I think the “exercises” in training would be stuff related to fighting maneuvers… which, like I said, must be a sort of visual/kinetic representation of programming functions that are related to harming other programs.

So the “gradual improvement” I guess is analogous to system upgrades. Or at least, being provided with data and commands that enable that specific use of the functions you have.

If you are a program like Crom, specialized to do calculations involving interest (which are not easily applied to fighting!)… then you would probably need to get new features coded into your programming before you could be competent at the games.

Crom definitely doesn’t get that. But maybe the training the Reds get can involve some actual upgrading.

Tron, of course, is one of the lucky students who came into gym class with enough skills to ace it (because fighting is already part of his directive).

Ram MIGHT have some fighting directives in his programming too (because in “The Next Day” we find out his programmer’s a hacker, and I’ve seen headcanons that he has some hacker code in him).

He also might be especially good at applying his actuarial functions to the math of calculating fight moves.

AND he’s very close to Tron, so he gets all the help he can from that too.

(When all else fails, friendship is magic.)