I wasn’t gonna vote in this (Tron does not wanna be forced to fight against those who would otherwise be his allies, he had enough of that thank you) but whoops my hand slipped.
and oh dang I wasn’t expecting Tron to actually be ahead. Not gonna last, of course, but wow.
…I do think Data is amazing for being the first character I’ve ever seen who was both ethical and unemotional (like, not repressing emotions, but literally lacking emotions– in the visceral human-like feeling sense, though you could argue that his opinions and motivations count as emotions of a sort)
it probably was part of what laid the framework for me being okay with the idea that I can do things I believe are good and kind without feeling any kind of heart-deep drive toward it. Help others in need, even if their plight doesn’t make me feel like crying, because my directives still say helping them is the way to my overall preferred outcome. I don’t have to waste bandwidth on calling myself a bad person for not feeling it
Data helped with that, and I am grateful to him.
but it bothers me that he always viewed being human as the goal, the preferable status. and his characterization is also messy, inconsistent, sometimes over-explained in telling that contradicts the showing.
all of which, honestly, may have been the most realistic way for his life to go. we are all contradictory and messy, and few of us are happy being exactly who we are
and yet. I still went with Tron on this.
Because I’m beginning to fall in love with the subtlety of that movie. The way it didn’t overexplain things about characterization and motives. the way it showed who Tron was in such clear but understated ways.
and who he was is just as fascinating to me as Data.
man of few words. man who worships the humans, and yet has enough skepticism that he replies to “do you think the Users are still there?” with “they’d better be.”
man who is taken away from his purpose and forced into battle to kill for the entertainment of others… does the job efficiently, ruthlessly, quick as possible, then raises his disc with such forceful anger at what he’s been made to do, but still without a word
he whose smile in the arms of his lover is the most beautiful expression of joy I’ve ever seen– and then seconds after reuniting with her he’s 100% hyperfocused on making plans, getting her help to complete his directive– she can only convince him into intimacy by turning it halfway into roleplay about traveling to the I/O Tower
he who discovers his new friend is still alive, and segues into the most homoerotic few seconds imaginable of just looking at him and touching him… and then finds out the other friend (the one he shared a cell with for who knows how long) didn’t make it, and speedruns a dozen stages of bottling up the grief in a matter of silent seconds, before smiling and moving on
and then finds out this oblivious mess of a new friend, who’s been bumbling through this adventure like the luckiest idiot, is 1. a User, one of Tron’s actual gods and 2. actually as oblivious as he seems, has no idea what he’s doing. And copes with this potentially faith-destroying revelation in the same polite, stoic way, leaving us with many possible guesses what’s going through his mind
and no one programmed him to be like this! His programming only covers the basic directives: Fight for the Users. Protect the System.
all the rest of his personality just.. spontaneously manifested… through the spiritual, animistic background magic of this world, which is hinted at but again, never explicitly explained.
yeah. I dunno if Tron’s the right choice here, but he’s my choice.
