AU that Dyson spends his free time playing Animal Crossing on his Nintendo Switch
Tron plays Nintendogs on his 3DS
….aaaaa.
Tron HAS a Nintendog (except in that universe they’re called EncoDogs) in-system, it’s the behavior emulator for the virtual pet game and it manifests as a lil dog-shaped program inside the encom system.
it’s from the second year that Sam Flynn played his pranks. first year the prank was a MIDI of “dont stop believin” that played on everyone’s computer. second year it was an animated Marv-shaped dog, made from the virtual pet game code, running across everyone’s desktop.
both years, original Encom copy of Tron was devastated that he somehow failed his Directive as a Security Program and got defeated by this hacker slipping through
until he realized… he knew, deep down, who the hacker was, and was subconsciously letting him win. For the Users.
from then on, they work together on the pranks. Tron has adopted the EncoDog (named Mal, even though he’s not really malware). he is an excellent Assistant Watchdog for the Encom Security Suite. and he can catch and retrieve Tron’s disc like a frisbee.
This post reminded me of my first long-form Tron fanfic, in which I made the addition that not just Programs are living people in the digital world, but Files are as well. Including music files (one of the main characters in the story is a music file!).
So I’d like to think that Tron had to chase down the Don’t Stop Believin’ File in the ENCOM system, and that it looked just like Steve Perry. Tron much preferred the dog.
I VERY MUCH APPROVE OF THIS HEADCANON and i fully accept it as part of the backstory of “Watchdog” (the fic I wrote on this topic)
yes. If the spiritual magic of the Encom System can give life to programs as simple as a compound interest calculator, it can give life to text files and images and music files too. It’s like the Velveteen Rabbit. I love this, gonna go read the fic you linked. Yes.
Oh!!!
I just had a thought!
… wonder what Flynn’s “old file” looked like?
The one he and Clu were looking for… The one that proved his ownership of the games.
If the spiritual energy of the system animates Files in the same way as Programs, maybe the File was like a prisoner in that memory. A prisoner who had vital knowledge, being held captive to keep the secret…
And perhaps Clu was on a sort of rescue mission.
Is it a text file, or an uncompiled draft of a game program, or what? Would it have looked like another copy of Flynn? If Clu had found the File and brought it to safety in his tank, would he have been fascinated to see his own face, his User’s face, looking back at him?
Would it have a personality more like Flynn’s, or more like Clu’s, or something else? Maybe, like characters in a book, each of a programmer’s creations has a personality focused on an aspect of who the creator is. Maybe Clu is Flynn’s task-oriented side, and the File is part of his creative side… who knows?
Had the File been absorbed into the MCP? We do see Dillinger saying “Can’t you just appropriate it?” And MCP replying, “I did, I put it in my memory.”
We know the MCP absorbs programs and makes them part of himself; does he do the same with Files?
Anyway, it seems the File was released at the end, when MCP was defeated.
Makes me wonder if maybe the programs he absorbed became free again too.
There’s certainly a trope in folklore that harm done by a powerful enemy (such as spells cast on victims) can be undone if that enemy is killed. Could that have happened for Clu, and any other programs who were absorbed for their functions?
After all, their functions still existed, and maybe all that was keeping them inside MCP was his own control. If whatever made them alive and conscious was in there too, perhaps it was freed at the end and regained control of itself.
I like to think so…
I’m reminded of the origins of the concept of “easter eggs” in video games: Programmers were angry that the game companies didn’t credit them in the games they created, so they snuck in their names as secrets that could be found by players.
What I’m saying is, I’m picturing Flynn’s credits File having bunny ears, a tail, and carrying a bag of eggs.
