So here’s a funny little thought about Tron.
Yes, he is an oblivious goofball sometimes, BUT…
…He’s a security program.
And, interestingly, his knowledge of security measures? Also seems to make him good at circumventing them himself.
We have it on good authority (Yori!) that before his latest stay in the pit cells, he had been captured and locked up – and broken out by himself– multiple times before.
“I knew you’d escape! They haven’t built a circuit that could hold you!”
Interesting side note: although we in fandom most commonly use “circuit” to mean the patterns on the programs’ bodies, Yori here uses “circuit” to mean a literal computer circuit– a place in the computer that Tron could be kept.
But anyway, this establishes that Tron has a history of breaking out of any circuit they try to keep him in.
Back in the cells, when Flynn arrived, Tron was already planning (with great confidence!) to do this again.
“You really think the Users are still there?”
“They’d better be. I don’t wanna bust out of here and find nothing but a lot of cold circuits waiting for me.”
He has no doubt that he’ll “bust out of here” eventually. His only concern is that maybe he’ll find only “cold circuits” (which is a little ambiguous, but I took it to mean something like “cold empty hallways,” with no User presence).
He has more faith in his own escape-artist abilities than he has in the actual Users.
So.
Let’s go forward to when he actually does get out.
This happened with Flynn’s help.
Flynn, racing against an enemy lightcyclist, turned at the wall and led the enemy to crash into it, making a large crack.
Then, Flynn went off toward that crack, announcing to Tron and Ram:
“I’m getting out of here right now and you guys are invited.”
And all he hears back?
“Got it.” Like that, monotone. Didn’t even sound excited.
(And that was Ram, the polite one! Tron doesn’t even bother answering.)
Sooo. Conclusion? This thing with the cracks in the walls is not even a surprise.
It happens a lot– often enough that the announcer-lady voice has a prepared announcement for it.
“Video game warriors escaping game grid! This is an illegal exit.”
(She doesn’t sound surprised either, for what it’s worth.)
Tron was confident in his ability to escape because he knew this was gonna happen sooner or later. He’d probably seen it happen! He was just waiting for it to happen when he was in a position to take advantage of it.
Yes, Flynn happened to be involved in making it happen, this time. But, in their whole little interlude in the energy-pool cavern, Tron and Ram never once express thanks or admiration or awe or anything. It’s like Flynn’s part in this was totally unremarkable.
Now, when Tron introduces him to Yori, he does have the decency to give Flynn fair credit for being the one who happened to “bust him out”….
and Yori does mention that some thanks might be in order… although their primary focus shifts pretty fast to “yikes look at him getting all up in Yori’s space like a creep.”
Neither one of them seems impressed that Flynn helped with the escape. All the congratulation for Flynn’s knowledge of how to break out of there? It’s all self-congratulation– right before Flynn seems to decide that now’s the time he has to admit to being a User, in order to explain this great feat.
Really, Flynn. Really?
(I’m not saying Flynn was 100% useless on the entire mission. There was still the MCP Distraction that he provided. It’s possible Tron wouldn’t have been able to find a substitute for that.)
(But still. Really, Flynn.)
