I believed in the users once before | A system in disbelief
Itās so fascinating looking at legacy because basically in all of Flynnās actions he has created the perfect situation to justify hatred and disbelief in the users.
Flynn did all the heavy work for Clu. There is no need to propagandize and lie when , in your view God has indeed abandoned you. He had taken a Polytheistic society that used to have more more individualized ļæ¼deities and inadvertently turned it Monotheistic. Between him constantly leaving and then going into hiding- to this society he truly has abandoned them. They have no other User input, requests, commands - he is it and he has left them.
As cycles go on belief wanes, this is a system that used to have direct and constant interactions with users and what theyāre capable of and hasnāt in generations. Memory wanes, anger stews, distrust grows. And who comes in to pick up the pieces? Clu. Heās not making a single thing up, unlike most dictators he fully believes everything he spews and from a point of view⦠heās right. (Again thatās terrifying).
Where the MCP had to forcefully capture and eliminate programs who still believed in the users (that he hadnāt assimilated or drained). Clu doesnāt. Belief was nearly stamped out organically!! In the grid it has truly become a cultish set of unwavering beliefā unlike in Encom where it was a organic part of life stamped out by force. This is more āchoosing to leave religionā if itās comparative?
Those who fight in the games are strays- not regular programs but those broken or lost that are out just⦠wandering. Those are the ones that get tossed into the arena or rectified (from what we see in the movie) itās not like the MCP. Clu doesnāt have to work so hard to get rid of belief because I cannot state enough, Flynn did all the heavy work himself.
In this grid the games are a purpose, horrific but using the ļæ¼infrastructure left behind by Flynn. Strays get the games ā survival. Regular programs have something to do ā watch.
Thereās no mindcontrol in the crowd- their user hate and games enjoyment is a necessity if they want a society at all. If it is to believedā as Flynn himself stated Clu canāt create, he can repurpose. Heās the overseer! Not the creator. Heās doing what he can with what he has⦠he built Rome, which is not good (as sympathetic as I am towards Clu thereās like 12 other things you couldāve done before building Rome)
No one is a better example of Lost faith than Castor.
Heās fought for Flynn and his beloved ISOs , he was one of the best so much so heās still sought after. Heās changed. āI believed but what did that do for me?ā What did it get him but heartache and so many dead companions and at the end of it , after all this fighting Flynn disappears! His fall into self preservation and sour attitude towards users is completely understandable.
Itās sad that this has happened as the original film and novelization describe belief in the users as this intrinsic and natural thing all programs know to be true. And to have a situation where so many willingly abandon belief because there is no communication (āuser requests are what computers are forā) or purpose. That it had been made so easy for clu to turn that sorrow into a burning hatred. It is sad that this thing they all desire the most has basically been made into a cult sect who canāt let go of something that used to be so basic. Above all itās just so fascinating that this all happened naturally supposed to by a regime, all Clu had to do was step up and acknowledge it.
Now Iām not saying Flynn did any of this on purpose, he didnāt want to abandon anything, he didnāt want to create a system with no purpose. He was a excited young man who wanted to recreate something cool and was given the powers of a god. He didnāt know the impact even the smallest action could cause. He did not have bad intentions but oh boy did he fuck up.
I hope this makes even a lick of sense, I just have so many thoughts š