astercontrol:

so

the scene where Yori starts to lose her life force when she thinks Tron is dead, and Flynn recharges her.

i always felt especially sorry for Yori there.

he brought her back because he needed her. she’s the only person who has any idea how to do anything in this computer system. Tron needed her to get to the I/O Tower and to the MCP. Now Flynn needs her...

she’s trying to mourn, she’s not even sure she wants to live anymore, and all the time she’s getting dragged around being made to help with stuff.

she’s got “the only competent person in the friend group” syndrome. it never stops

alas poor Yori.

but…

eventually i noticed, it is also interesting to look at this scene from a perspective of Flynn’s character development

…and yeah, it is an unfortunate trend for these realizations to happen the other way around (women’s suffering in fiction being examined only in terms of the male lead’s character development)

but honestly, I have never seen anyone else examine either of those things in terms of this scene before?

so, here goes with the flynn part.

exhibit 1.

Lora, no longer in a romantic relationship with Flynn, but still worried about him, feels the need to stage the Flynntervention

ALT

“I want to go to Flynn’s place.”
“What for?”
“To warn him.”
“Of what?”
“That Dillinger’s onto him.”

and Alan, her current guy, could be interpreted here as trying to remind her that it isn’t either of their responsibility to help him

ALT

“I don’t see why I have to do that guy any favors.”

exhibit 2.

Lora is putting Flynn at her desk in the laser target area.

ALT

He says, “you are going to stick with me?”

She replies:

“What for?
You’re the one who never needed help. remember?”

He answers with excuses that… really can’t be taken seriously.

That he is scared of the dark, and of technology? (cmon. the literal first thing we see him doing in this movie is sitting at a computer, hacking, in the dark.)

he is clearly hesitant to actually ask her to help him.

He’ll imply it. but he won’t say the words.

and, going by her “You’re the one who never needed help. remember?”… it reeeeallly feels to me like that’s a long-term problem with him.

Maybe even a big part of why they’re not together anymore.

exhibit 3.

Flynn and Tron and Ram have just escaped.

he wants to go fight the MCP.

ALT

Ram, quite reasonably, points out that they haven’t got much chance to do that without more help.

“When do we pay our visit to the old Master Control?”
“There’s just three of us.”

Flynn scoffs.

“Well. if you know anybody who’s got an army for rent, that’s fine. but my User told me to go take that sucker out.”

ALT

and this time, it’s Tron who reminds him that they do need help.

In this case, Alan’s help.

“We can’t get to the MCP…
without the help of my User.”

And finally.

exhibit 4, in context.

ALT

Yori is on the floor, exhausted. Flynn says:

You all right?
I still have power.
Sark doesn’t know that.

Yori replies:
Leave me alone.
We’ve failed.

ALT

Flynn persists:

We’re only gonna fail if we give up! C'mon, look! The wall!

But Yori’s lights all go dim, and he rushes to her side.

As he holds her, she lights up and comes back to life. He smiles, like he’s welcoming her back, and probably at this point he’s expecting her to be thankful.

ALT

But instead, she seems shocked, and perhaps even upset.

“You brought me back.
How? Why did you bring me back?”

And this, maybe, is the first time in his adult life when Flynn finally finds the strength to say those actual words:

ALT

“I need your help.”

…

crying.

…

…Extra-tragic in the context of Legacy.

Because that’s the future where the character development here didn’t stick.

…