r-4360waspmajor:

I find it awesome every time a Tron writer (official or fan) takes inspiration from real-life computer science and twists real elements just a little bit to fit the world of “anthropomorphised programs” in creative ways you might not expect. But it’s especially cool when they creature-ify them.

I mean things like glitches, malware, bugs. I never watched Uprising so I don’t know much about what’s going on in that show, but I do know Evolution and its take on computer viruses being some sort of corruption/zombie plague. Absolute banger of an enemy threat, I’m still emotional about Abraxas (whose name is a reference to a real life computer virus, also known as Abraxas5)! But then there’s other malware, like worms. I just read a fic describing them as these toothy creatures living in the Outlands, somewhat reminiscent of the sandworms of Dune, and now I’m kind of vibrating in my seat because ohmygosh that’s so COOL. Maybe they appear like that in an official Tron publication, maybe it’s a fanon thing I somehow missed till now, but I am so enamored with the idea.

And of course, I can’t forget Bit from the 1982 movie. Loved that little guy :)

All of this!!!!

I think I read the fic you’re referring to, and yeah I’m pretty sure that author made up the creatures all on their own! There are “code worms” in Uprising but they are small and parasitic (extremely disturbing episode, yeahhhh)

(There are probably other creatures in the videogames, but I haven’t heard of any worms in those.)

Anyway YES I LOVE creative explorations of how IRL computer science could apply to the Tron universe, and seriously, canon does NOT have enough Creatures.

(got a fic idea on a back burner about a program who tames and trains gridbugs as a side job. I figure, pest animals are often the ones most easily domesticated, because they’ve already acclimated themselves to living around people… Soooo imagine a program who gets a call to deal with a gridbug infestation and goes in all Pied Piper of Hamelin playing a song of reprogramming, and next thing you know the bugs are doing your housework for you)