aristaresident:

astercontrol:

tronrpg:

astercontrol:

fights4users:

astercontrol:

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.

yeah! isn’t it???

my theories about Yori (in the headcanon where everyone has a disc, and only the warriors have it in That Specific Way):

1. maybe the usual norm is (as I mentioned at the beginning) to keep your identity disk in a safe place, as makes sense for a backup of your memory. In this headcanon, warriors are denied this, as they are forced to use discs as weapons and are denied any kind of safety. But Yori is in a safer (though soul-crushing and mindless) job, so her disc stays at home.
2. OR: maybe the norm is to keep the disc on oneself– (maybe not in the circuit-scarring, branding sort of way it seems to be done to the warriors, but maybe it is basically your soul, or your internal memory, and you’re not totally alive / not forming memories if it isn’t on you!) In this case, maybe Yori is the one who’s been denied her natural state. Her disc is kept from her– maybe she has to ask a superior to access it for her regular backup– or maybe it’s locked up in her quarters, so she can only access it after she’s put in a day at work. (Maybe this is why she’s going through her work day like a half-zombie, and takes an effort to shake herself out of it even when she sees Tron!)

It’s sooooo wild to me that we apparently just never get a canon explanation for the origins of the discs? They’re so interesting?? After I watched ‘82 with a friend who knows way more about all the other Tron media I was like “so did they ever follow up on this?” and she told me “nah, not really.” I was kind of shocked because like…they are an extremely integral part of Tron lore, but on the other hand it’s kind of a relief because What If the Canon Explanation Was Bad, as so often happens when franchises try to go too deep into explaining the magic.

aaaaaa okay I love all your tags and YES these are things I’ve thought about, omg

ALT

okay I have watched the movie a gazillion times in the past year and. Yes. The programs who have just been conscripted already have discs visible on their backs, even before the scene with Sark saying “you will receive an identity disc…”

here’s Crom and Flynn when they first got thrown into the cell

so… I guess one way to try and make it make sense, is what tronrpg said above: “maybe the conscripts were assigned identity discs which merged with their personal discs to mark them as warrior-slaves for the MCP”… so maybe they had a disc when they arrived, just not the kind that controlled them in the way the Sark described?

but yeah. I prefer when canon doesn’t try to explain. Because the cumulative creativity of fans is always gonna do it better, LOL